ALLIES BY DEFAULT because we're surrounded
by independant-and-complicated
Summary: continuing six months after their first meet, this time in Italy, now there's too many slayerettes and demons and Lycan-meetings to keep an eye on...re-edited, should be much clearer.
1. Stand down, Slayerettes

"Selene" said Michael, and she only moved her eyes to the door.

Demons were everywhere. And they all noticed the slayer walk in. Amazing how many of these demons looked human, but they stopped smiling and trying to look drunk as soon as she walked in. They all looked at each other nervously.

However the Lycans in the room ignored her, and kept in a knot in the VIP section in the corner, watching them. Selene had ignored them the whole night. The meeting was tomorrow.

"She's early" said Selene, smiling slightly

Buffy ignored the shifting demons, and headed straight over to Selene and Michael. She hugged them both (Selene managed to return it, despite it feeling awkward) and sat down to get a drink.

"My sister's going to go crazy when she sees the mall they have here" she laughed above the music

"So where are you staying?" asked Michael

"A watcher's place," said Buffy, accepting her drink with a smile at the barman, "it's near the cathedral"

She then noticed Michael and Selene both having drinks

"The barman knew we're not human," explained Michael, "we didn't even have to order"

"What do you know of someone called the Immortal?" asked Selene, and added "The barman told us our first drink was on him"

"House rules" added Michael sceptically

Buffy frowned a little and shrugged, but her eyes were still on the drinks "Is it... you know...?"

"Yes, it's just blood," said Michael, but there was a lot of it left, "and a little preservative"

Selene hadn't drunk hers at all. Their shallow conical glasses made the blood look like a cocktail, even with an umbrella in it.

"Who are the butcher boys?" asked Buffy, not even looking at the Lycans

"Guillo said they were our bodyguards" said Michael, grinning

"Graceful host" said Buffy, raising her eyebrows

Selene smiled, and then set down her drink, and went over to the Lycans

"She's telling them we're going" said Michael, draining his glass

Buffy nodded, watching Selene negotiate with the man at the rope barrier,

"How's her optimism?" she asked

Michael smiled "she's getting used to it"

It's been six months, thought Buffy, a little irritably. Michael stood as Selene came back they walked out of the bar, pausing only slightly as Michael had to prise a young girl off his chest as she babbled Italian flirting in his ear. Selene rolled her eyes and Michael, slightly sheepish, put a hand around her waist as they struggled out through the mass of mixed humans and demons pouring in.

"How is everyone?" asked Selene once they were outside, Buffy noticed she had linked hands with Michael. It was the most obvious she'd ever seen them behave as a couple.

"They're good, Willow and Kennedy are in Ireland doing a magic thing and trying to talk to the Lycans there"

"They don't have to do that," said Selene, "we were going to get round to them after we'd got Italy, Belgium and Finland"

"We all saw your face when you talked about them and we know you don't scare easily" said Buffy, "she says it's going slowly, but they've stopped yelling in Irish when she goes near them, they're even starting to listen"

Selene raised an eyebrow and Michael let out a single chuckle.

"Dawn is finishing school; she's getting an English accent and knows more ancient languages than I think any school-age kid should, so she's our Giles-ette now"

"Giles-_ette_?" asked Michael, who remembered him from Germany but they hadn't spoken

"My watcher, I never told you that? We stayed in his friend's house in Germany"

They nodded. It was a shortened but completely identical nod. Buffy had forgotten they did that.

"Giles and Dawn are starting this 'Slayer Camp' thing, I just drop in to exchange Slayer-ettes and keep on travelling"

"Slayer-ettes?" asked Michael, smiling

"Well, they're not really slayers," said Buffy, "not until they had some Watcher-and-Slayer-time and have lots of lectures on duty, and also learned about weapons, fighting and how to drive Giles crazy"

"One and a half watchers against dozens of slayers," said Selene, "I'd prefer Ireland"

Buffy eyebrows shot up "That's what he said"

Michael snorted

"It's not just him anyway, older slayer-ettes help out, and the grads come back to get them experience"

"The graduates?" asked Selene, quietly dismissing an idea of going to visit this place

"Slayers who've been through an apocalypse"

Michael and Selene gripped each other's hands a little tighter and exchanged a glance; there were now worse fates than being an immortal...

"So how about you guys?"

"We were in Germany for a while after we left you," said Michael, "we found Daniel, he's doing a good job, and we think he might even be Lucian's son, he looks like him, he was born a Lycan, and his dad wasn't actually his dad. After that, we found out vampires have been turning as many as they can and we had to stop that, which brought us way into Normandy and had to get them to make a coven instead of hunting in groups..."

Buffy saw half the story in their faces and eyes. It was the look people get when they seen when power corrupts and/or drives people crazy, and their eyes said it had gone _all the way_ wrong. They'd most likely had to kill the worst ones and had had to explain to the rest what was actually happening to them, there might even have been mercy killings for the really innocent, crazy ones.

Buffy and Faith had had to drop everything and fly over to the L.A airport to collect a crazy slayer the slayer-ettes and Andrew had prised off Angel. The girl now was on a mass of medication on top of her training, but Giles wasn't sure she'd ever be stable enough to be a 'graduate'.

"... so now the Lycans in Russia are looking after them, which is the strongest link we have in the alliance"

"That's great" said Buffy

"Nothing teaches you about hope better than teaching it to other people" Selene said, only looking at Buffy sideays

"Speaking of teaching," said Buffy, as they had stopped outside a townhouse, "there's," she caught a crossbow bolt out of the air, a few inches from landing in Michael's shoulder, "some people," they each caught another out of the air, "you need to meet"

At which point Buffy looked up behind her shoulder at the only open window and called

"I'm _standing_ here _talking_ to them, doesn't that mean _anything_?"

Once inside Selene and Michael took off their trench coats (Selene had ditched the old jacket at the first opportunity) and ignored the three girls standing down the hall all armed with various weapons. One included Selene's UV-round gun.

"God, stand _down,_" said Buffy wearily, brushing past them into the kitchen, and then called "if you guys are hungry we have O Negative!"

The slayers stood out of the way as they walked past into the kitchen. Selene neatly took her gun back as she passed.

"I got it from a friend of Matt's," said Buffy, putting two mugs on the counter and emptying half a blood pack each into them, "he said it's _free range_, which I think means its fresh, but from him it might mean he got some volunteers and practiced some voodoo-who-joo on them before sending off what he didn't need... Girls, will you just sit down!"

The three slayer-ettes grudgingly took seats at the opposite end of the table. Selene knew by looking at them that two were from the UK and one from the Middle East. Women used to wearing a niqāb face-covering have a way of expressing themselves very clearly using the eyes alone. Plus there was a tan line, however faint.

Buffy put the blood in the microwave (on low heat) and pointed at the girls, "Shauna, Rosheen and Fatwa"

Shauna and Rosheen were identical twins, except Rosheen had finer, reddish-brown hair as opposed to Shauna's darker brown. They fixed Michael and Selene with unfriendly glares whilst Fatwa seemed to be more curious than murderous.

"Guys, they're _not_ demons," said Buffy, prodding Rosheen so she was pushed into Shauna's shoulder, and got the blood from the microwave, "well, we're not sure what they are"

"It's not like you're offering tea though, is it?" said Shauna, looking behind Rosheen at Buffy

Buffy raised an eyebrow

"When I tell you they're okay, you can trust me" she said with a tone that dared her to argue

Rosheen nudged Shauna and they were both quiet. Fatwa watched them take a sip from their mugs and smiled slightly

"You manage to keep it off your mouth" she said

"With practice" said Michael, grinning back. Fatwa hesitated at his answer and seemed unsure what to do

"It must be difficult to come from such a traditional background and suddenly become a slayer" said Selene quietly

"It is a lot to adjust to," said Fatwa, "I was studying medicine in Bristol University when it happened, and suddenly I couldn't stay as I was"

"You stopped believing?" asked Michael

"No... I couldn't hide myself from men because they demanded it for respect"

"Imagine, one day, thousands of Slayers' worth of memories telling you that the only thing you were afraid of was death, and you were going to die violently like all the others had, and then try putting that face-cover thing on" said Buffy, who was now leaning back with her feet up on a chair on Michael's side of the table. She was bang in the middle of the large table, facing the two immortals. Selene saw the effortless leadership in her; she was used to using everything from her words to her body language to tell others what was happening. She saw Rosheen's expression relax a little and Shauna's shoulders tighten.

"Are you two the only slayer twins?" she asked them

"The only slayers in Ireland" said Shauna with a little pride

Selene frowned slightly and looked at Buffy "How do you know that?"

"Willow has this thing, she knows where all slayers are" Buffy explained

"What exactly happened to Willow?" asked Michael, "You say she did a spell to make all slayers become slayers, or whatever, and now she's connected to them all?"

"We're not sure," said Buffy sighing, "Kennedy said she looked like some kind of goddess for a second when it happened, y'know. Glowing and all the jazz, and she does know where all slayers are, and she can connect to them like she did..." there was a little pause, "in Germany... she couldn't have done that so easy with anyone else, with regular people"

Selene's eyes narrowed

"She held up a building by using her magic, and I was told she located us underneath it"

"She's something like a goddess" said Buffy, and then frowned, "although I dunno if that makes me one of her subjects or something, I don't do subject well"

"I think she knows you well enough not to expect it" said a man, walking into the kitchen.

"Carlos, Selene and Michael; guys, that's Carlos" said Buffy, waving a hand casually

"I'm happy to receive more guests" said Carlos, nodding at the two. He had a naturally warm expression

"We're not staying, we're..."

"They're gonna be here for a little while," said Buffy quickly, "just like a week or something"

"Giles was on the phone a moment ago," said Carlos, putting his mug in his coffee machine, "he has begun hinting at my taking a few slayer-ettes on to teach slaying"

"What happened to the grads helping?" asked Buffy

"Faith has appeared again, with new slayers from Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and all the islands around that area; fifteen of them."

Buffy let out a big sigh and closed her eyes, leaning her head on the back of the chair

Selene and Michael just looked at each other and then at their mugs.

"This is just like Faith..." muttered Buffy

"Who's Faith?" asked Shauna

"One of the slayers who got through the Big Bad," said Buffy in a weary monotone, getting off her chair, "she's the most experienced we've got and the biggest pain in my ass, I'm gonna call Giles"

Selene and Michael watched her go, and just as Buffy walked through the door she called

"And be nice!"

Carlos sipped his coffee and smiled slightly at the awkward group at his table.

He'd been a lonely watcher/bachelor for years and was suddenly being invaded by half a dozen beautiful women.


	2. Everyone needs a hand

Selene and Michael managed to make conversation with Carlos. It turned out he'd met Buffy three days before Buffy had gone to fetch the twins from Ireland, which was two weeks ago.

"Mr Giles has a list," he explained, making himself another cup of coffee, "he tracked the remaining watchers after the Sunnydale Apocalypse was won. I had really just been a footnote in the watcher directory until Giles realised I had a large house"

"So why aren't more watchers taking on slayers?" asked Selene

"There aren't a lot of us left now, there was an attack on the headquarters and so many stayed there, those left are fairly paranoid. Some of them are still hiding," he replied, looking in a cupboard and frowning as he picked up an empty jar of crunchy peanut butter. He carefully put it back.

"You'd think they'd want more well-trained slayers around if they're so afraid" said Michael, raising his eyebrows

"You'd think" muttered Shauna, who had sat as if on guard, at the table, when the other two had gone to train or do whatever it was they were doing

Selene ignored it "There may be something we can do to help – bring slayers on Lycan meetings and supervise demon killings"

Michael caught her eye briefly in surprise but didn't react further. Selene ignored the eye-contact and took the last of his blood just as Buffy walked in.

"We're going to have to take some extras" she announced wearily

"Michael and Selene offered their help" said Carlos, nodding at the two

Buffy looked at them, half desperate, half worried.

"You don't have to"

"We could all use the extra hands" said Selene

Buffy frowned quizzically "How do you need hands?"

"Word's spreading," said Michael, "that slayers are neutral but powerful, the Lycans will agree to a truce and treaties if they're watching over it... it looks really good if we bring them ourselves"

Buffy's relief washed over them like a sudden shower. They both looked at her as if she called their names. Buffy's eyebrows raised

"You know that's creepy?" she said

"Sorry" said Selene

"Do you think you could take Rosheen and Fatwa?" Buffy asked them, going to the breadbin

They felt Carlos become very suddenly weary; a realisation swept over him and he excused himself.

Selene and Michael watched him leave and waited to see what happened.

"Shouldn't be a problem" said Selene, while Buffy put slices of bread on a plate and got a spoon

"Why aren't I going?" demanded Shauna

"Three slayers and two... immortals?" asked Buffy, now looking at the pair, who shrugged, "Well, it looks weird, so we're gonna have focus training"

Shauna was just to argue when she saw Buffy turn and open the cupboard, and closed her mouth again.

"Who... took... the peanut butter?"

Shauna kept very still. Selene and Michael touched fingers under the table; this was better than TV.

"You can't get this outside America, not this kind!" spat Buffy at Shauna, and before Shauna could argue, she strode out to the stairs and called "Who took the peanut butter?"

"_Shauna_!" called both the slayer-ettes upstairs

Buffy came back in and threw the empty jar into the bin, where it shattered from the force.

"That's the third one" said Buffy, glaring

"We share things, you said that" argued Shauna, glaring back

"Next time, ask" said Buffy quietly, and jerked her head to excuse her. Shauna left slowly, her eyes drilled on Buffy. Buffy simply waited for her to go and finally sat down at the table.

"Carlos saw that one coming" said Selene, smiling

"I need a fridge with lots of big locks... and alarms"

"Would that stop her?" asked Michael, nearly grinning

"No, but at least I'd hear her when she does it" growled Buffy running her fingers through her hair.

"She's the dominant twin" said Selene

"Yeah... or thinks she is" said Buffy, "I had to get her out of going to jail before this – her parents had to be told why, and they freaked, then we found out Rosheen had it too, and then we had to explain why we had to take both of them, and then they wouldn't be separated and they couldn't both sleep on the table at Giles' place, so I had to bring them"

"What's Shauna's problem?" asked Michael

"She doesn't want to be a slayer" said Selene

"Right" sighed Buffy, and her face hardened further

"What?" asked Selene, frowning

"It's not just her, there's more!" said Buffy, slumping back on her chair, "There's at least five more just like her, sitting around with Giles, and some of the grads are trying to leave, like they were on vacation job or something!"

"As soon as the meeting with Guillo's Lycans is over, we'll come to England"

"On the next flight" said Michael

Buffy looked at them both and nodded. She knew she didn't have to say thank you, her relief was evidently telling them enough.

Selene and Michael went sight-seeing. Selene had been making an effort to be interested in the countries they went, but since the making of the Young Covens, as Selene had christened them, she had been more subdued than usual and seemed to just go along with what Michael was doing.

Michael had asked her more than once what the problem was. He supposed because it wasn't mission related, she was still deciding what to do.

As they walked out of the museum, Michael had given up conversation (again) but Selene stopped, looking tense.

"Can we go somewhere?"

Michael simply nodded and took her to a nest of chimneys in the older part of town. Selene watched the world for a while, whilst leaning against a chimney, bathing in a strip of sunlight. Michael watched her, too impatient to be casual.

"You've been distracted for a while"

Selene nodded. There was a long silence while Selene appeared to be steeling herself for something. Michael's stomach swirled with dread.

"Michael, I've..." Selene began and then started again, this time leaning forward, her elbows on her knees, "I've changed"

There was a long pause, Selene was staring at him, and Michael could only keep still.

"I was a soldier... there were rules, following them made everything right; I was 'right' for centuries, and then you came and ruined my life"

Oh God

Michael couldn't breathe

"Things have changed now," continued Selene, her eyes boring into his, "and I've changed, I realised when we had to deal with the young covens, turning strays into teams"

Michael felt an awful wrench, so violent it made him wince. Selene seemed to hesitate, surprised by his reaction and then came forward on her knees "Would you marry me?" she asked grasping him by the forearms, somewhat desperately, like she was about to fall.

Michael blinked. He put both hands on Selene's shoulders and took a few breaths.

"Yeah" he said, and then looked at her again "Don't ever scare me like that again"

"I never proposed before" said Selene, her face still tense

Michael suddenly let out a great snort and Selene smiled. Selene's hair, which had been growing long recently, fell over her shoulders as she leaned her forehead against his shoulder and he simply laughed awhile.

"Wait"

He vanished. Selene smiled, leaning her chin on her hand, knowing what he was doing. In half an hour he came back minus his watch and slipped a silver ring on her finger. It had a miniscule diamond on it, but when eyes as strong as theirs looked at it, it didn't need to be big.

"I'll propose every time I want jewellery"

"I think I'll have to press the anniversary issue every time I wanna give you some" said Michael grinning

"Never more than once a century" warned Selene

Guillo was meeting them in the back room of the club. He had only two Lycans on guard and they sat quietly in the corner of the room.

Buffy, on Michael's advice, had taken Shauna out clubbing in the front room. A guard went in before Selene and Michael did.

"The slayers came to our meeting?" Guillo asked, having come to meet them at the door, so as to look. They appeared to be dancing away except Buffy made eye contact about once every five minutes.

"They're getting very keen on the truce progressing" said Selene as she and Michael took off their coats and showed neither had any weapons.

They went in and negotiated for a long time.

"You're asking both the vampires and us to make tributes to your tribe, which would be perceived as you and your group to be kings of some kind" said Selene

"You ruled our kind for centuries before trying to hunt us to extinction" murmured Guillo, who never seemed to speak very loudly

"_We_ are not vampires, Guillo," said Selene coldly, "history aside, any further fighting is pointless. Humans could discover us and we will permit any more collateral damage; the truce _is_ being made, and anyone who breaks the terms will have both us and the slayers bearing down on them, but the idea is that this isn't necessary"

Guillo leaned back on his chair. He had a big dark, wooden desk between himself and them. Michael thought it looked like the one in The Godfather.

"And because you are hybrids, you have decided you have the right, the power, to end this?" he asked

Neither of them answered.

Guillo put his hands together and looked at his nails "I promised the Italian tribes that if there were a truce, the terms would reflect the vampires' sorrow for what they have done"

"Revenge or payment for old wounds are not part of any truce that will last in the future – the vampires have no grudge against you now that Viktor and the Corvinus twins are dead, if we carry on as if they are still the 'evil oppressors', they will resent it and give you something to feel oppressed about"

Guillo smiled "But you would stop this, being the mediators"

"We would see things from both perspectives" growled Michael

Selene and Michael agreed to meet Guillo tomorrow while he told the tribes what was going on.

Selene had not let go of Michael's hand as soon as they walked out into the front room where Buffy and Shauna were dancing.

Fatwa and Rosheen, who had stayed at the bar closest to the door, gave them their seats and went off to join the dancefloor.

"Selene" murmured Michael through the din

There were two demons, people-looking demons at the other end of the bar, staring at Buffy. They looked... odd.

The barman gave them both drinks, exactly like the ones they drank. Selene realised the umbrellas were colour-coded, having seen the barman only green ones for blood drinks.

"They're vampires," she answered, frowning, "I think they're Buffy's kind that 'dust' when you stab them"

Then a connection made itself, just in the way the taller, darker one looked at Buffy, and Selene remembered all the (extensive) details Buffy had mumbled in the water trap in Germany.

"Shit... it's Angel"


	3. Like It or Not

"Who's Angel?" asked Michael, concentrating on the pair. They were looking at Buffy longingly, but he then raised a finger on the hand that held hers and subtly nodded in the direction of some unusually demon-looking demons heading for them.

"She told me about him in Sophie's Warehouse," murmured Selene, now taking a sip from her blood cocktail, "I know she can't be here"

"Why not?" asked Michael, looking at Buffy, who hadn't noticed anything, she and Shauna were dominating the space around them and the whole crowd around them was male. The place stank even more of hormones than usual.

"This would make everything much more complicated... she's just not ready to have this on top of everything else" said Selene, putting her drink down

The vampires were now talking to the demons, so they made their move. They didn't have to navigate the crowd; it moved subtly around them. At least, the humans didn't realise their instincts had prodded them out of teeth-range and the other demons had already got out of the way.

"Buffy," called Selene, "we're done, let's go!"

Buffy was a little tipsy, as were the other girls. Shauna had hold of her left hand and was pushing away a hopeful looking man with the other.

"Selene! You didn't have that ring there yesterday!" said Rosheen, who had a man attached to her as she danced (and was getting evil glares from Shauna)

Selene smiled and decided how she was going to get them out "Michael and I need to tell you something!" having to shout above the din and wished they had better hearing

"Oh my God!" cried Shauna

"Outside!" insisted Selene, grabbing Fatwa's elbow and giving an icy glare to the man who was stepping forward for every step Fatwa was retreating back. In fairness, Fatwa wasn't looking down or giving him 'go away' signals

Outside, Selene told them, keeping hold of Michael's hand. The slayers all screamed, bounced up and down, hugging each other, hugging both Selene and Michael, and hugging each other again. Selene bore it but didn't hug back.

It was right then a small, nervous looking boy came forward out of the throngs of people and walked up to Buffy

"Ah, slayer, at last we meet again!" he announced. The slayers stopped and gave him sceptical stares

Buffy stopped bouncing with Shauna and looked at him, frozen for a minute in disgust

"Oh my..._ Andrew_?"

"Yes," said Andrew airily, "it is I, I mean me, I, well..."

"Who's this?" demanded Selene, hand lingering on her gun in her coat

"I am Andrew, watcher of the slayers of vamp-_ires_" postured Andrew, displaying an odd talent of posturing without moving

"Andrew, has anyone told you that you shouldn't mix the grunge and librarian look?" asked Buffy, appraising him sceptically, "It makes you look like you're successfully trying to be a geek"

"It is smart-casual mixed with manly roguish lack of fashion" sniffed Andrew

The slayer-ettes and the immortals were still staring blankly

"Guys," said Buffy, "this idiot is Andrew, he pretends to be a watcher and does Giles' errands"

"Do not," spluttered Andrew, trying to puff up his chest, "I... do things, which Mr Giles is too busy to do but requires a trusted..."

"You fetch his dry-cleaning and cook, you even cleaned the bathroom" said Buffy, exasperated

"Why are you here?" asked Michael, annoyed enough for his eyes to go black

"Ah, the immortal hybrid werewolf-vampire," said Andrew dramatically casually, "at last we meet"

Michael simply stared "Well?"

Andrew hesistated and then looked at Buffy "Mr Giles has sent me to assess the... happenings, which go on here"

"Giles sent you to check up on me?" asked Buffy, her eyes narrowing

Selene and Michael were equally disgusted by the boy's weakness, which emanated from him and permeated the air around.

Buffy was doing no better "Giles spoke to me yesterday; he was the one under pressure"

"And he felt I should come here to... keep standards" rallied Andrew

"Giles sent you here because he wanted you anywhere but there didn't he?" snapped Buffy

"Can I crash?" pleaded Andrew, "I don't have any place to go and I spent all Giles's money he gave me to get here and to eat at the Plaza Di Ritori"

"You ate at the city's most expensive restaurant?" asked Selene, her teeth sharpening from irritation

"A watcher has standards" sniffed Andrew

"You're not staying, Andrew, we are _not_ carrying you around"

"But I..."

"He can have our place" said Selene suddenly

There was a pause

"You paid the deposit, and it is just sitting there" Selene reminded her, thinking '_you also stayed there a whole week before Carlos took you in; it will smell like you live there to a vampire looking for you... and his recently hospitalised spy had been tracking Buffy's credit card..._ "You," she growled at Andrew, "we shall go over the rules" grabbing Andrew roughly by the neck of his awful jacket she pulled away him to one side. Michael followed, smiling slightly.

"Now, you're familiar with what we are?" she demanded, keeping hold of his jacket by the shoulder

"I, yes! And I warn you, dark being, you shouldn't be treating me..."

"Michael" said Selene, "I think Andrew needs to be taught manners"

Michael growled low in his throat and his hands grew claws.

"Wait, I understand!" yelped Andrew, cringing

"I have a job for you" said Selene, and when Andrew looked at her, her eyes were white-blue

"Uhh..." whined Andrew, "what? What job?"

"Can we trust you to do it or will we have to make sure you will?" growled Michael, having fun

"I'll do it, I promise, I won't betray your trust, watcher's honour!" said Andrew, who was now staring almost solely at Michael

"There is vampire here called Angel, do you know that?" asked Selene,

"N-no, he's here?"

"As we understand it, he's going to try and contact Buffy while he's here, so for however long he is here you are to keep him separate and ignorant, do you understand?"

"Ignorant of what?" squeaked Andrew

"Of Buffy's situation," said Selene, now adding a hint of anger, "she is under immense stress and any more pressure will cause her to be compromised. If Angel knew of her situation he would demand to help and would complicate the matter further!" she stopped for a moment and allowed him to take that in, "Now you will stay in that flat until he leaves Italy, while he is here, you will tell him Buffy's life is perfect without him around, and that she involved romantically with the one they call the Immortal in these parts, and if Angel finds Buffy- I will hold you _directly responsible, _with all that implies" she added, for good measure

Andrew had gone pale. Selene smiled slightly

"And don't touch the weapons" she finished, and let go of him. Handing him a large wallet which held the key, the address and some money, she strode off. Michael was struggling not to laugh, and waited until they had walked back to the others.

"That looked like the harrowing from Hell" said Fatwa, giving an amused look at the pale Andrew heading off in the opposite direction

"He needed to know what he wasn't allowed to touch" said Michael in an annoyed voice. Selene smiled inwardly; Michael was at his best covering things up.

"Michael's precious about his weapons" said Selene, giving Buffy a slightly raised eyebrow; _you know what men are like_

_Yes, I really do_, said Buffy's eyes

"He's going to stay out of the way" said Selene to everyone

"Forget the boy, who proposed?" cried Rosheen

"I did" said Selene, smiling

Things were much easier between Shauna and Buffy. Rosheen had apparently told Buffy a few things about her which had helped.

"You don't resent being a slayer?" asked Selene as they watched TV. Rosheen was having time off for fighting a nest of vampires with Buffy that night, and this morning admitted she hadn't even tried going to sleep. Shauna, Fatwa and Buffy were training with Michael downstairs.

"No," she replied "when we both realised we had it, we were just happy it was the both of us"

"Shauna didn't want it"

"No, she didn't, but I didn't mind, I can protect us better now, Shauna doesn't like big changes, though; it takes her a little while"

"What do you mean by protect?" asked Buffy

"I don't mean 'from the world' or anything, not in that way" said Rosheen, and then raised a finger as her programme came back on.

Selene got up and went downstairs to see how the other slayers were doing.

"...not going to freak, there are demons these guys will face that'll look way worse"

"Then let them see _them_" protested Michael. Selene stayed in the door and understood the problem

"I'm only asking because they've only seen demons at the bar, and the only one who's had any real fighting is Rosheen" said Buffy, who had box-training pads on her hands

"Michael" said Selene, and raised an eyebrow

Michael sighed, and changed

The slayer-ettes took a step back and Buffy's expression didn't change

"You know, I've seen much worse," she said, "and they didn't even have pants"

Michael gave an irritable snort, Buffy ignored it

"OK if this a big nasty coming at you, you remember one thing; you can't beat it using strength alone"

Michael stood still, and then remembered to growl

"You use everything around you," continued Buffy, "everything's a weapon"

She then came at Michael, stake from nowhere in hand.

Selene smiled, sat down and leaned her chin on her hand. Michael wasn't really used to sparring with anyone except her, and the rest of the time opponents were not usually as strong or as experienced as Buffy.

And he managed to draw with her. While she had a stake half an inch from his chest above his heart, he had his claws pointed towards her chest, ready to dig under the ribs and tear what's inside to shreds.

"So," said Buffy, stepping away, "fighting could mean that you die every time, whether you're facing a... what do I _call _you? Hybrids, immortals, what?" demanded Buffy at Selene, who still had her chin on her hand

"Hybrid will do" she said

"Right, _thank you_. So, it could be hybrids, vampires, or knights on horses but what matters is that they die and you try not to"

At which point Rosheen came in with Selene's phone, which was ringing. She threw it to her and Selene opened it even as she caught it.

"Who's this?... ... Where is he doing this?... ... ... No, meet us by the cathedral"

There was a pause before she spoke again "One of Daniel's men saw Guillo's men taking humans to a safehouse of some kind, he's going to meet us"

"What's he doing with them?" asked Buffy, already heading to her bag with weapons in

"Whatever it is, human contact breaks the truce" said Michael, now back in human form

"There is no truce, not to him," said Selene, "you saw how he approached it, and it was either to gain superiority on vampires or nothing at all"

Everyone had at least a silver weapon, whilst Michael and Selene had silver-nitrate loaded guns (Selene also had a grenade), and Buffy had a bag of assorted pointy things.

"We'll exit out the back, backtrack two streets and come from the roofs" said Buffy as they headed up the stairs. Selene suppressed irritation, having preferred going in by the sewers.

The man was one of Daniel's leather-jacketed boys who was obviously within fifty feet of his bike at all times.

"The boss says if you wanna do somethin' 'bout it, we're in" he said in a broad American accent

"We'll see first" said Buffy, and they strode off to rougher side of the city, through the traffic bridges and rather crumbly looking streets. Selene decided that since Buffy was so keen to take charge, she could have it, even if Michael looked uneasy about it.

They finally approached a street at the end of a T-junction and Selene signalled to Buffy, who held her arm straight out behind her; the slayerettes got in single profile behind her and they approached carefully.

"I can smell them" whispered Michael, Selene nodded

"What do they smell of?" asked Fatwa

"Depends," answered Michael, "ones that eat donated blood smell like new paper, Lycans that hunt humans smell kinda like car gas"

Buffy gave a different wave and the girls split up into different hiding positions. Selene and Michael looked at each other and leapt onto the roof opposite them. Buffy looked up from behind two metal bins and muttered "Showoffs!"

Half an hour passed as they waited. Buffy's phone buzzed silently in her pocket and the message read

"Tell slayerettes to shut up" from Selene

Geez, thought Buffy, and texted back "Theyr whispering inside a building!"

"Tunnel acoustics" came the reply

"I no, so warn us when theyr coming"

Selene sighed and put her phone back in her pocket, just as Michael gripped her forearm

"It's him and the other one"

There was a scooter coming down the street, with the two vampires looking uncomfortable and angry on it.

Selene hesitated and jumped down to Buffy proceeded to distract her

"Is this what you call discipline on a mission?" she demanded, so Buffy turned around to look at her. Surprise and annoyance flashed in her eyes.

"Can we talk about this later, when we're not in Lycan-zone?" she snapped

"There might not be Lycans if they're warning them we're here" insisted Selene, wishing that scooter to go past

"That's what you're up there for, to give us warning!" argued Buffy

"Lycans can hear a vampire walking on the other side of a wall; if they're protecting something secret they will be listening to every breath within the next two streets"

At that, she stalked away and walked through the door where the girls were hiding in an abandoned house, neatly catching the two crossbow bolts and tilting her head to avoid the knife now quivering in the doorframe

"Quiet!" she commanded, eyes blue, teeth extended. She tossed the weapons back to their owners without breaking her stare

"Weren't you on the roof, though?" asked Rosheen

"And they could hear you" said Buffy, who was leaning against the doorframe

Mercifully, the scooter passed, Buffy only glanced once at it and registered nothing

Selene strode out and leapt back up to the roof

_Geez_, thought Buffy, returning to her spot.

Then she got a text

"MOVE BK NOW"

She got up and clicked her fingers twice, calling the girls out, and didn't even explain as she motioned them to run.

Selene and Michael jumped down at the other end of the alley and explained there had been scouts on both levels

"Is that normal, scouts?" asked Buffy

"No idea, it means they're very nervous," said Selene and made eye contact with Michael, who immediately went back up to the roofs, "so we're going to approach them carefully"

"Did they know we're here?" asked Fatwa, absently flipping her knife in her hand

"Not here in this area, but they've heightened their security since we've got here; we saw signs of a lot of Lycans being posted around the building and it's very recent..." said Selene, checking her phone, "Michael says he's made contact... Buffy, I need you to do the negotiating here; Guillo doesn't believe Michael and I are neutral"

"Fine by me" said Buffy, and led the way back

The Lycans landed in front of them as they approached from the same alley they had left. They glowered at them, mostly at Selene. Buffy immediately stepped forward

"I know that people can find the whole thing of truces and remembering the rules really hard," she said cheerily, "and I'm not planning on any real kind of lesson teaching, but say, you don't get out of the way, we'll start with the classic 'ladies first'"

Selene kept her face carefully blank, but she wished Buffy just didn't talk quite so much; honestly, it was like having a running commentary.

The Lycans stood aside and walked them out of the alley, straight to a parking area where humans were getting out of cars driven by Lycans wearing dark clothing.

"Where's Guillo?" demanded Buffy coldly, loud enough for everyone to freeze as she crossed the road, and all the Lycans pulled UV-guns out of various jackets, pockets, holsters and, in one case, fishing it out of the back of his pants,

"I wouldn't" said Michael. The slayer-ettes, himself and Selene all pulled out silver-nitrate guns, and Selene looked at Buffy. Buffy took it a cue.

"We don't need this," said Buffy, "we need to talk to Guillo"

"And what is the problem?" asked Guillo, emerging from a large, run-down garage

Selene hated the type of man who said dramatic lines as he entered a scene; she also noticed he was wearing a very slick kind of suit, the kind that shouted he was trying too hard. She hadn't missed the desk he'd had in the club either.

"There's a bit in the truce, I guess you missed it; you don't touch humans" said Buffy, advancing for every step he did

"Ah, but we are not involved in the truce" smiled Guillo pleasantly

"Well, I guess I'll just take offence for being a Slayer then," said Buffy, very nearly shrugging, "what are they here for?"

"To feed," said Michael, his voice deep with disgust, "I can smell the blood from here"

Selene looked at the humans. There was London Goth, German Goth (which can get pretty extreme, trust me) and then there was Italian Goth; only Italians could dress the way they did, some of it was even inflatable, there were metal collars made to look like actual chains, the rest I'm sure you can imagine.

They were here because they thought death was cool, and the undead were cooler, and they were clearly under the impression they were going to 'rise to another level'. Some of them looked like they were rarely on the reality level at all. Selene didn't understand why Lycans appeared to enjoy drug-loaded blood so much.

"Fatwa, Shauna, get the humans" she murmured

At least they behaved like they were slayers, stepping forward together, glaring at any Lycans not getting out of the way fast enough and not looking at anyone for authority.

"Hey, we're not going anywhere," said a French boy who was wearing everything you would find in a bondage catalogue, "we're here to glorify in death and blood; we're here to be the divine wretched!"

Guillo smiled at Buffy "Like they said, here by choice"

"Just because they're high, stupid and deluded doesn't mean you get to take advantage," seethed Buffy, "you either let them go, or I make you"

"You think we don't know you are in league with the vampires?" spat Guillo, jerking his head at Selene, "A world famous Death Dealer brings magic humans into the fight, and we have not heard of any slayers racing to stop anything the vampires do – they are breeding their disease, and you do nothing! We only wish to even the odds, and to live as we live, and you say you are the neutral police, of a fight not your own?"

Buffy was already bored of his speech and let him see it.

"You know, I hear stuff like that all the time! 'It's not fair', 'we're dead so it's allowed', 'why can't we', 'what are you gonna do about it?' If you're making humans bleed, even if they ask you to 'cause they're that ignorant, I get involved, and you really don't want me to be – and for the record, I've killed so many more vampires than Lycans, so I could happily even the score if you want"

"Hey, if there are any scores need settlin' we're happy to help" called the bike-Lycan from earlier. He emerged from the alley to the left of Guillo. He had ten men and women. One woman beside him in vintage worn jeans, boots and an ancient, reddish t-shirt grinned, and pointed a gun at Guillo

"We should start with the most eager" she said in a strong Spanish accent

"Against your own kind!" snarled Guillo, taking a small shift backwards, glancing at his men

"We do not see us like you," spat the woman, "we came, all from different tribe-leaders all over the world, to offer to the truce, Lycan to Lycan. We are sent to warn y_ou _that the Lycans in Europe Mainland will not stand your savage ways"

They stopped and stood in a rough V formation in the road, all holding necklaces in one hand, some tied around their wrists.

Selene blinked, she hadn't realised this was how Lycan leaders recognised each other; she now noticed Guillo had an arrow-head on a leather thong. She remembered Lucian's key, which she now kept in a box along with other small, personal things in her bank in London.

"So, brother," said the American, "what's it gonna be?"

"I will never recognise any treaty with vampires!" snarled Guillo

"Shame" said Buffy, and shot him in the chest. Michael and Selene beside her so fast they blurred, and while Buffy still had her back to the ten Lycans and Guillo's men, Selene and Michael were on each side, a gun pointing at each group. Rosheen was pointing her gun at Guillo's men and the other two slayers took a more protective stance nearer the humans.

"Well, Danny will sure appreciate that," said the American, grinning and lowering his gun, "does a heart good to see simple justice like that"

Three Lycans in his group looked very uncomfortable, and one looked at Buffy and said something in what sounded to Selene like Romanian

"Yosef says his leader said there was to be no blood, but I will discuss it with'm on my rounds" said the American, and the other uncomfortable Lycans drew off away from the group to talk to him.

The Spanish woman came forward and smiled as Selene holstered her gun

"I was curious to see the hybrids," she said, "as my leader is also"

"Wish we could meet in better times" said Michael, holding out his hand, "Michael"

"And your fiancee, who needs no introduction" smiled the woman, shaking Selene's hand, "I am Carmen, I came for Gita, who was anxious to tell you she believes we are friends to you"

Selene couldn't quite smile, "I'd like to send a message to Gita," she said, locking eyes with her, "please inform her I am sorry and wish to make amends for the fourth raid during the Civil War"

"Oh, please, she mourned," Carmen protested, "but she would be pleased to know you remembered even which raid it was, and she knows time changes, and her son only wanted the end of war, and this you have done!"

Selene still looked troubled, at which point Carmen hugged her. Selene managed to return it gracefully enough, having had practice with Buffy.

"We extend you hands of friendship," said Carmen, but paused and smiled embarrassed, "I apologise, my English is still... rough"

Selene smiled, and launched into Spanish. Michael knew enough Spanish to order a beer and an omlette, but was impressed Carmen managed to make Selene laugh.

Buffy's phone went off and Selene, whose social skills still had something to be required, immediately stopped listening and focused on her. Michael saw in her expression what was wrong.

"How many?" asked Buffy, and shut her eyes, and she turned to look them both. She shut the phone and gave them a slightly desperate look "I'm gonna take you up on that offer"


	4. Carlos's prayers answered

Selene excused herself from Carmen, who went to speak to Michael but Michael was already following Selene.

"If any of you are still here in the next few minutes," announced Selene at the humans in Italian, "the slayers will keep the peace the way they like to, and I will happily watch"

The humans peeled off a couple at a time. Rosheen sent one boy off with a limp because he tried to convince her to come with him, and after that it didn't take quite so long.

"I never should've taught you that" said Shauna thoughtfully, who knew from experience that the boy's knee was going to twinge for a while afterwards

"If by 'teach' you meant using it on me" replied Rosheen wryly

"I'm the youngest, I have to defend myself" grinned Shauna

"Girls" said Fatwa, as she walked past, following Buffy, Selene and Michael.

"Hey!" called the American Lycan, so everyone turned, "Keep in touch!"

Buffy nodded and walked on

When they got back, Buffy told the girls to pack, and told Selene and Michael what was going on

"More just arrived from places like Russia and Hungary, Giles didn't even know until one of the grads turned up with eight of them. We can't pay for hotels, and there is no room in the house at all, so we're meeting five at the airport, which are going to be yours, and I'm going back with the girls to look at what we can do"

"We know nothing of slayers" protested Selene as they went into Buffy's room

"Hey, you just wrote our job description, teach 'em what you want them to do, train them, and theres a letter from Giles coming with the girls explaining everything"

"I think we should talk to him" said Michael

"You'll have Carlos," continued Buffy, who was stuffing things into her bag, "and Giles' number is on the fridge"

Buffy picked up her bag and checked her phone, she then called the girls to hurry up

"Out the door in forty minutes!"

Selene looked at Michael, who gave her a slightly helpless grin and suggested she should call for a people-carrier.

"Buffy," said Selene, as Buffy was about to go downstairs, "I could call in some favours, get in some vampires to help train them"

"Do whatever you thinks' right, you know as much as I do" said Buffy, shrugging impatiently

_How did we get into this?_ Wondered Selene, asking Michael with her eyes

Michael just grinned at her and then paused "We need to check on Andrew"

_Oh yes_, thought Selene, _well tonight is looking better and better_

There was a nice quiet atmosphere in the taxi. Everyone was enjoying their own space while they could. Selene and Michael were staring out of the windows just touching fingertips as if by accident, and everyone else was just in their own world.

Buffy was curled up in the double front seat, thinking of Dawn. She was getting older, and knew far too much about things that Buffy was uncomfortable about knowing herself. Her emails rambled on about rituals and make-up, boys, and a strange demon that kept turning up on the slayerettes' training outings (which she was _supervising_ these days, basically a full watcher herself).

She had wanted Dawn to have a much more normal life than this. Also, there was that money the insurance company had reluctantly forked out (because Angel had lawyer friends who made sure of it), which she wanted to buy a house somewhere when she could finally give up all this craziness, maybe help out a bit with new slayers – especially now Selene and Michael were helping, and Faith was checking in more often (she'd now been at Giles' place for a record of two months and looked like she was settling, even strengthening and securing the basement, which was apparently suffering from a lot of slayerettes training in there).

But now Selene and Michael were getting married. Selene had not looked overly happy at having five slayerettes dumped on her, but when things got pushed, Selene would have to help shove.

Faith was getting more settled as well; Dawn said she was now 'officially' dating "Robin" (since when had he stopped being Principle Wood?) and Giles... well, he was Giles. He settled anywhere with books and a kettle.

How can everyone be cookies but me? Or am I meant to be cookie-dough the rest of my life?

"OK," said the driver, and said something in Italian, which Selene replied to and paid the fare, and presumably told him to stay where he was.

At the check-in desk, as the girls were waiting to be checked in, Selene took Buffy aside.

"I have something I need to tell you" she said tensely "I couldn't tell you earlier... Angel's here."

Buffy's eyes opened wide, which made Selene continue hurriedly

"With everything that was going on, I took the decision to help you concentrate on getting the job done, and Angel was only going to stamp around and insist on taking control. He had a man following you, he knew you'd put a deposit on our flat as well as living there before we got there. He was in the club when Michael and I had the meeting; we both sensed he had every intention of reconnecting..."

"Stop" said Buffy and there was a pause as she seemed to need time to breathe. Selene couldn't sense what she was feeling

"Thank you" said Buffy at last, "I mean it... people don't look after me like that, and you were right, if he'd been there, he would have got Wolfram and Hart in it, and I'm just holding it together now... so thank you" she hugged Selene, and for the first time Selene actually returned it properly. Gratefulness was rare in Selene's world, the more leader-like the person was, the least likely they were to be grateful.

"Look after yourself" said Selene, smiling

"Hey, if you see him, will you tell him I told you it was okay?" asked Buffy, shouldering her backpack as the slayerettes came over

Selene nodded, and watched them head towards departures, and leaned against Michael when he put an arm around her.

"Well, she couldn't flame you if we're taking on slayers for her" he said gently. Selene elbowed him lightly in the ribs.

At arrivals, they sat on the chairs facing the doors. Buffy said they would be wearing identical 'London' t-shirts, and the plane was landing in twenty minutes.

"Giles must be very organised, to get flights like this so fast" said Michael

"Well, he's friends with someone in Angel's company who has contacts in flights" said Selene

"This is a really powerful guy, isn't he?"

"We can only use him if there's no other choice"

"But Buffy won't even ask him for help on the slayers? He's got a lot of people..."

"I don't think its an option" she replied, and tucked her feet onto the chair beside her and leaned on him

The girls arrived in jeans and punk-rock 'London' t-shirts, which looked suspiciously like they'd been pre-ordered in bulk.

Selene could smell them within ten feet of them; weapons polish (which brought her back a few hundred years), gym mats, and too-many-people-sharing-a-bathroom smell, not to mention the smell of an adrenaline-soaked atmosphere. The girls were a range of a heart-breaking seventeen and twenty-nine. They were clearly just out of the 'welcome to being a slayer' stage and were in that 'utterly confused but should be ready for anything' stage. They looked like a sudden movement could have them springing on the attack.

Michael was a holding a large piece of cardboard with their names on it.

"Did Giles tell you who would be meeting you?" asked Selene, as if she needed to ask, they looked like they were all wishing they had a stake and yet very curious. _So these were the hybrids..._

"Giles said you speak French?" said the youngest

"Yes I do, are you hungry?"

The girls were ravenous. They had stopped at a cheap restaurant (so they could experience real Italian pizza or pasta) and they ate like someone was going to take it away from them any second. Then they shared two giant sundaes between them. It seemed they understood Selene and Michael's assets were a little more extensive than Giles and Buffy's were.

Tessa, the youngest at only just seventeen, was from France, just outside Paris, and had come from a loving, middle-class family who thought she'd won a scholarship.

Mindy, at nineteen, had been on her gap-year and now told her parents she was working in the London British Library, and was from Australia

Lola was also nineteen, although her twentieth was two months away, was from Czech, and was obviously relieved Selene and Michael could speak Russian, and had also told her family she had got a job in London (Natural History Museum).

Julia was twenty-two, though English, was from all over the world, having had a military family, and had been helping Lola with the bits of Russian she knew, and had dropped her boyfriend and university course to be here. Having suffered badly with nightmares and visions and a strangely extra-powerful sense of the paranormal, she once knelt to Willow involuntarily and rarely looked her in the eye.

Willow had been avoiding the subject of being a demigod, just accepting the unconditional respect she'd got from all the slayerettes until that point, and then had gone to Ireland. Julia had surprised Buffy with the way she took to training so well and took out her first vampire within two weeks (which set the record), before taking out her second, third and fourth within the next minute.

Lizzie was the eldest at twenty-nine and had been having the worst time about being a slayer. She was married, her husband was a business man in Japan. Lizzie was from America but had lived in Japan since she was twelve, and had been trying to get pregnant when slayer-dom shattered her life. Her husband, though not an oppressive man, had fairly traditional values and liked a respectful wife, but then he'd sensed a change in his wife and thought it was an affair, but having found out it wasn't that and Lizzie being unable to explain (knowing he'd have her checked in to a mental health ward within the day), had left him a letter explaining she loved him and had to go and 'sort some things out', and would call him when things settled. That had been two months ago.

Selene knew these were 'polite cases'; when the Death Dealers from Amelia's coven gave them training or hunting cases, they weren't the worst ones and weren't the easiest ones either. Buffy was seeing how they did with the ones in the middle who needed time and attention and couldn't get any.

Carlos took them in very graciously; Michael saw the look in his face of a man who'd prayed for a day like this for a long time.

"You know, I think we'll be OK with Carlos helping" he said, as they walked back to their flat

"I'm not worried" said Selene

When they opened the door, Andrew was looking weepy.

"What happened?" asked Michael, looking confused. Selene looked over Andrew's head and saw a box of chocolates on top of the coffee table, a half-used box of tissues (the tissues were everywhere!) and gave Andrew a angry glare

"Oh, nothing, just hanging out, you know, wanna come in?" he asked, opening the door further

Selene went first and stood beside the sofa, seeing some obviously passionate moment of the film on the TV.

"Ever seen _Milk_?" asked Andrew, which made Michael snort. Selene raised an eyebrow

"No," she said, retraining a smile, "we were here to check things"

"Well, Spike and Angel were here a couple of times, but they left for America last night" said Andrew casually, as if completely unaware of the importance of such information

"And you're still here?" asked Selene, all smiles gone

"Well, you guys, I have no place to go, so I thought..."

"Go back," said Michael, annoyed, "get a job and a place to stay. When I come back in the morning, you better be gone"

Andrew spluttered but Selene followed Michael out and shut the door behind her, even though that meant dragging Andrew along behind it, obviously fighting to keep it open. They walked back to the house and agreed to check on Andrew, even pay for his ticket home if they had to, early tomorrow morning.

As they lay in bed, Selene's head on his shoulder, Michael stroked her hair

"On our honeymoon, we are going to go to somewhere really isolated"

"We're having a honeymoon?" mumbled Selene, drowsy

"You think after this we won't want one?"

There a considering pause

"Vanuatu"

"Huh?"

"It's a small collection of islands east of Australia – very isolated and lives on tourism"

"Sounds good" smiled Michael


	5. Full Circle

Buffy had slept on the plane, confident in the knowledge that Willow was watching them from her magical perspective, so whatever happened between Italy and Washington, she would get warning.

Normally they wouldn't have used Willow like this, but there was reports of evil activity in L.A., specifically around Angel and his supposedly converted-to-good law firm (which had recently defended a well-known parasite demon from going to a torture-jail after he had slaughtered another demon's stock of followers for some political coup thing... oh yes, Angel, the Hellmouth must be trembling behind its sofa-dimension...).

_She dreamt Angel was at the airport, holding a bunch of flowers, while the airport was covered in a magical bubble that filtered the sun, and she kissed him while the slayerettes were butchered by some of Angel's bodyguards..._

_The was a voice, practically an old friend by now, in the back of her head, which told her the bliss that came from kissing Angel wasn't allowed..._

_Then Selene came, green eyes afire. Monster-form Michael tore Angel from her, and while they fought, Selene glared at Buffy and held out something between her finger and thumb, it was the ring Angel had given her, and said quietly_

"_Who protects you from yourself?"_

"_What did I do?" Buffy asked, feeling an awful, hollow feeling it was going to be really bad_

_Selene grabbed her and jumped high into the airport rafters, punched a hole in the ceiling, and outside, aeroplanes were burning, and the fields were covered with dead people_

"_Angel was supposed to stop this" said Selene, and she pushed Buffy off the roof..._

BUFFY!

Buffy felt herself jerk as a response to falling and sat up. She took a second to remember where she was and realised all the girls were asleep, and then heard Willow's voice in her ear

Can you hear me?

Willow?

I caught the end of that, are you OK?

What, you're dream-stalking me now?

No, I -!

It's okay, I was kidding

You were seeing something happening again, it wasn't just a dream – There is something wierd going on in L.A.

Like what? Is Angel-?

I don't know, Buffy, it's something dark, and Angel's in the middle, that's all I know

So what do we do?

I don't know yet, I'm going to talk to Giles

Okay, thanks, Will

The next hour, Buffy suffered with a migraine, and it didn't go away until she had got back to Slayer HQ.

Giles put her in a dark room, blissfully empty (which was a rare privilege) and put a hot mug in her hands

"Willow said to have this made for you when you returned"

Buffy just drank it and was out cold before she hit the mattress, Giles neatly slipping the mug out of her hands and leaving.

00000

Selene and Michael stayed up, not needing to sleep every night. The slayerettes were exhausted, learning how to start thinking like a fighter (which would have to do instead of proper slayer training). They had tried to track down and spar with Michael, to no success but a respectable start to getting the idea, and Selene made them do all kinds of exercises including fighting with foam sticks whilst blindfolded. That, they did well.

"It's all about learning how far your instincts can take you" said Michael, catching a thrown stick because one of them got the wrong idea.

Selene had been just as subdued as she had been before.

"You OK?" he asked, they were sitting on the roof, with the first snow of winter swirling around them, but they didn't feel it any more than they felt the sun

"I'm thinking of marriage" she said after a long pause

"In what way?"

"If you marry me, there's no going back. I've lived long enough to see the difference vows make"

He looked at her, and she looked away out at the snow.

"This is you getting pre-wedding jitters?" he asked, moving to sit closer to her, "We have allies now, the Lycans are starting to accept the treaty, the vampires will do whatever you tell them 'cause they're scared of what we'll do if they don't... this is about as good as it gets"

"This is as good as we can ever expect..."

"Well, we could hide out in some mountains somewhere, but if we'd have to be ready in case the slayers need us or we get a house-call"

"No"

"So what's actually wrong, that we're getting married or knowing what you want?"

Selene smiled a little

"Both, I think... what do you think?"

"I don't think you'd wanna be hiding out from it and I don't think we'd be able to for long anyway, and we're always gonna be the freaks in this show, so everything else is just details"

"And you're OK with that?"

"Yeah" he answered with as much force as she had asked

"You shouldn't be here, Michael" she answered, clearly telling herself more than him

"If this is about me being turned, it's a little late for that"

"And that makes it alright?" hissed Selene, eyes going blue

"Selene, please tell me, what's wrong?"

Selene didn't answer him, and after a long pause Michael looked away at the city and ran a hand over his hair. He looked back to try a different tack.

Selene had gone.

0000

Buffy felt better after a full night's sleep, which she knew was due to what Giles had given her.

She came down and found Giles, four slayer graduates, Dawn and the twins around the large dining table.

"Hey" she said tentatively

Dawn beamed and got up to hug her

"How're you feeling?" she asked, her English accent just starting to sharpen her vowels

"Fine, hey – you grew, _again_!" said Buffy, noting Dawn was now a full inch taller and maybe an inch and a half if Buffy ever wore flat shoes around her again

"Did I? Hey, you know, that makes me taller than both you and Mom, I think I got Dad's genes"

Still the same smugness, she must have fit right in to English School

"So how's A-Levels? That's what you're doing, right?"

"So boring, I'm doing History, but it's all..."

"Human? Set in the last hundred years? Written in English?"

"Kinda," said Dawn shrugging, "although Fashion Design's cool, I reinvented jeans, they're really good for... outdoors"

"Outdoors as in it's easy to get demon blood out of them? And by the way, I was looking for that shirt!"

"Um, I think Dawn has been taking to normal life considerably better than we'd hoped," said Giles, wandering over, "and she's doing a more than fair effort in, um, teaching slayers"

"Slayerettes" said one of the grads

"Yeah, Dawn doesn't teach grads" said another

"Well, I could if you kept up" said Dawn icily

"Anyway!" said Buffy, giving the grads a threatening eye, she dragged Dawn out and found more grads, slayerettes and the utterly confused 'newbies', and in the middle of them were Faith and two of the original potentials.

"B!" cried Faith, walking deftly on the top of a sofa and even treading on a grad's head whilst stepping down, "Long time no see, girl!"

"Hey," said Buffy, who had recently been uncertain what to say to her, "glad to see they're doing OK"

"I got'm, B, they're gonna be fine," said Faith, catching the grad's thrown pencil and throwing it back so hard it stuck in the floor just by the girl's hand "next time, I don't miss!" she warned, not even looking over her shoulder, and looked back at Buffy "Hey, your sis is pulling some serious weight with these guys, I was sayin' Summers girls must have Slayers back in the family history or somethin'"

Dawn laughed, giving Buffy a very slight nudge with her elbow to tell her not to say anything

Buffy smiled and left Faith to it and gave Dawn a puzzled look

"I could tell what you were gonna say, about slayers not having kids, but four of the slayerettes and grads are pregnant and two more have kids"

"Oh my God" said Buffy, "I'm thirty in, like, not even a year!"

"They didn't have as much going on" said Dawn, as they walked into the garden where some newbies were getting slayer-style counselling to help adjustment, and grads were sparring with real weapons (partly because newbies were watching).

"Does that look like they don't have much going on?" asked Buffy, nodding at the girls, and Dawn shrugged

"It looks like they're getting spoon-fed what being a slayer means, and they don't have to look after anyone, and they're not paying a mortgage or keeping a job"

Buffy smiled and sat on the bench, and looked at her little sister

"And you? You're really OK?"

"It's part of being... whatever it is I'm doing, it's no different from you, Willow or Xander"

"I didn't ask what you're doing" said Buffy, and Dawn seemed to go blank

"Well, I have a secret I can never tell anyone, boyfriends are looking a bit out of the question because they'd get close enough to make it too hard to hide everything, and I can't see my friends outside of school unless there's a party at someone else's house, and people are starting to notice I never bring anyone home, and I'm running out of excuses!"

"You've got friends, though, right?" asked Buffy, suddenly feeling something cold and heavy hit the bottom of her stomach

Dawn didn't answer for a second

"Not scoobies, not like you had – I'm in normal-ville, there's nothing going on for them to relate to me with, or vice-versa, whatever"

Buffy took her hand. Dawn had aged; it was in her half-English voice, which had some of Giles's tone in it from whenever he was upset about something.

"I think I'm going to stop going around until we can get more... steadier"

"No," said Dawn, who pronounced it so English it surprised them both, "um, you have to keep finding them, you can't just let them sit there and turn into Sophie's, Mara's and Gillian's"

"I got the Sophie part" said Buffy, suddenly nervous

"There were others, girls who couldn't understand why they could suddenly sense demons everywhere, and got dreams about hell and all these girls dying trying to fight it – you know, we finally got things going on our side, and you'd let them go through it alone?"

Buffy sighed

"I can't be a slayer my whole life now we have grads taking care of things, we've got vampires and hybrids on our side, so I can't take some time off now, while we got all this going?"

"You're the general, Buffy, Faith won't do it, she'll up sticks and go somewhere and drag back some newbies from wherever, and she might not even come back!"

"Hey, hey!" said Faith, come from between some shrubs and leaning on the edge of the bench, but Dawn didn't look abashed

"It's not? What about Robin? You guys have a fight and you go to New Zealand for three months!"

"Hey, we didn't fight, we just don't agree on stuff, and Willow said they were there, who else was gonna get'm?"

"The grads, that's kinda their job" said Dawn flatly

"Hey, whatever, I was only comin' this way 'cause your hybrid guy's on the phone," said Faith, "and for the record, I didn't have to come back, and I'm not going anywhere"

Faith did a good job of stalking off whilst looking as casual and unfazed as only she could. Buffy gave Dawn a 'well... moving on' look and went to get the phone

"Hey, Michael?"

"Have you heard from Selene?"

"No, what happened?"

"She's been... I don't know, she was tense and unsure before we did the treaty, then it started rolling, then she proposed to me, and she's just got more wound up, nothing helps, and now she's gone"

"How are the girls?"

"Making a start"

"Well, maybe she's gone to think, maybe she just needed space"

"So you haven't heard from her at all in the last day?"

"No, sorry, hey d'you know if she has her cell?"

"I think so, she's taken a bag"

There was an awful silence

"Michael, I'm sure she'll be back, she wouldn't leave you for long"

"Define 'long' to someone as old as she is"

She was even older than Angel, by a long stretch; it was hard to imagine what anything, especially time, looked like to Selene

Buffy gripped the phone a little tighter and said gently

"Take it from me, every minute you're away from the person you really love feels like forever, she won't be away long"

Michael made an impatient sighing noise and Buffy grinned

"Unless you snore"

00000

Selene was in the mountains, having run there since she had collected stuff including two thermos of blood which was enough to keep her going for three days (the unfortunate side effect of her 'upgrade' was that she needed more blood). She sat staring at a sunset in a valley she had taken a liking to for no reason other than it felt barren, isolated and unlikely to be a route humans took often, she just wanted to be as far away from anyone as she could.

Michael had not followed her. He was the best tracker she had ever seen and she hadn't bothered to confuse the trail, in part because she knew that he wouldn't leave four vulnerable slayerettes, who upheld the slayer tradition of always finding trouble, even if they sat still in a room with the doors locked.

Selene didn't know exactly what was wrong with her. She just felt that everything, no matter what you did, was about to fall apart; Michael, the treaty, the slayers, the vampires, she just looked at all of it and it looked like it was all based on some strange, collected hope. Hope, for God's sake!

Viktor had at least had the sense to make reasons and rules for things. He might have been a sadistic, rigid and an entirely blind dictator, but he had been good at the fundamentals... but you couldn't rule anymore, people were looking to rule themselves, which was difficult because they were simply unable.

What on earth she had proposed to Michael for was utterly beyond her. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, and then the world made even less sense rather than giving her an anchor, something to hold onto.

Well, not the kind of anchor she'd wanted.

She had had so many anchors cut from under her already. Every ally, friend (especially friends), and leader in the last few years (or centuries), whatever had been holding the world up, had collapsed.

Michael seemed like a very pale substitute to whatever she had been trying to find again. There were faces and voices in the vault that was her memory, who all represented the days when she had her pick of reasons to be what she was and do what she did, and Michael hardly got a word in edgeways in comparison... but he had her, heart and soul.

This somehow made it worse. He didn't seem able to die anymore, and he made her feel things she'd been unable to feel for six centuries, but he was just one.

One man compared to everything she'd had before she'd met him, and whilst it had all proved to be fake, it was still her world.

It frightened her that she would have left that world for him anyway.

It was well into the night before she even checked her phone, finding it had no signal, and realised she hadn't even brought a gun. That was how much things had changed, she didn't feel any need at all to kill using high velocity projectiles, her hands and teeth would do just fine.

The really harrowing thing was, as she reflected on the lack of gun, was that she still meant to marry him, he was a rather pathetic form of anchor in the face of everything going on, but he was hers, entirely, and she was suffering from shock that she had given herself up so freely after more than half a millennium of gripping on so tightly that even the loss of everyone from her family to Viktor hadn't undone it.

Michael wasn't a man that did what many leaders do, which is practically explode with aura, he didn't really change anything at all... except represent a future where vampires and Lycans had to change everything they believed in to survive the changes that were happening everywhere.

He didn't demand anything, unless someone tried to kill her in which case he demanded that you be dead in very short order and he could organise that very quickly, but he was just _there_. He'd changed everything... he was just being himself, and she had let him have her soul without even realising she'd done so until she'd realised that this bloody world was nothing if he wasn't in it with her...

She wasn't ignorant to how ironic the whole situation was, not including that fact she had come in a full circle to this re-realisation.

Selene didn't sigh; a sigh was about a useful as farting at a time when you felt like this.

Now she had to go and explain to him all this. Without sounding really stupid.


	6. if the end is nigh locate nearest slayer

Buffy was relieved Selene was back although she did not appreciate that she found this out second-hand from Dawn.

"You were having a bath, did you want me to tell him to call back later?" she demanded against Buffy's reproachful look, which was somewhat less effective given the towel on her head

"Did Michael say what...?"

"No, he was kinda closed-mouth about it, I figured it was an argument"

Buffy had had to boot two grads out of the room she was now sharing with Faith and three slayerettes (including Rosheen, who was relieved not to share with seven others in the living room), and was still pulling on a jumper when Dawn walked in

"God, privacy?"

"Well, you can pray for it" she said, grinning, "we just got another call from Carlos, he said he could manage more slayers"

"We'll send some grads as well, we need a few less," said Buffy, "you can handle that, right?"

"Duh, who do you think gets Wolfram to do it? Oh, I did a Watchful Spell on Angel, it's looking really weird, but Willow said you'd had a dream about him already?"

Buffy paused in brushing her hair and spun round

"You're doing spells now? Dawn, that's...!"

"Buffy, I'm nineteen, I live with Giles and organise forty darkness-fighting girls, and half of them have seen girls going really crazy, I'm not an idiot. And I was _asking_ what you saw on Angel?"

"It was... weird, like, he met me at the airport instead of... I dunno, averting something, Selene appeared and she showed me all these people, dead on the runways... I don't know what it means, Angel deals with big dark bad more than we do now, we might even send some grads to him... but there's nothing in prophecies or anything?"

Dawn sat on the bed and played with a frayed shoelace

"No, Willow saw your dream, which we both think is as close to a prophecy as anything written, so we're looking"

Buffy nodded, absently brushing her hair, trying to make any meaning out of everything besides what Selene had said

"Maybe," said Dawn, "it's just something's gonna happen, so you see that part, like, it could mean lots of people die so you see that, and Angel's involved so he's there, and the rest is all just other stuff"

Buffy nodded again, impressed

"You're sounding so English now; I swear we should make you a watcher anyway"

"Well, being in training, yeah, and you know Andrew thinks he's in training? He's come back from Italy, Selene just kicked him out and he had to hitchhike from the airport, and he's staying with one of the grads"

"You're officially training? Why does no one tell me anything?" demanded Buffy, finally letting go of the brush

"Hey, I know most of it already; it's the extra watchery stuff I have to get down"

"What about a job, Dawn, and friends, and getting a life you can speak English in?"

"Why, because that worked so well for you? Buffy, I'm old enough to make my own decisions"

And at that, she left

Buffy wondered how much of that was inspired from her klepto-times, and thought ironically to herself how analysing her sister was a throwback to her college days...

In saying that, in the 'trying to be a good sister' race, Dawn was leagues ahead of her

00000

Selene had taken her time to explain things to Michael, knowing from experience that you needed a good few hours of explanation (which, due to looking after the four slayerettes, had to be done at night), more hours for further explanation, debate and conclusion, than a few days to let things settle, and then try doing that when your fiancée is determined to think things are his fault, and seemed to continually miss the point you were trying to make just because it landed you squarely in the blame of 'being stupid and difficult'.

He had taken another week to sort it all out in his head.

They lay in bed, Michael with his head nestled on Selene's shoulder, and they murmured about normal things

"We're running out of UV ammunition, and I can't get through to Tallis" he said

"He's dead, as Markus came his way, or he's run for it" she answered

"We could put the new coven in his exile hideout"

"Yes, but none of them know how to use the machines and it's close to a lot of human settlements, not to mention an hour's run from Moscow... why do we still need it?"

"You think we don't?" asked Michael, so surprised he got up on one elbow

"As far as we know, the vampires are too afraid of the Russian Lycans to do anything, and they know if they get up to anything, we hear about it... I think we can put some stock aside and focus on other things"

"Like training slayers?" asked Michael, grinning

"To begin with" she answered, smiling

"Or a honeymoon?" he added, snuggling up

Selene only smiled at that and looked at Michael as he sighed "What?"

"I'm still getting used to all this – anything to do with vampires and Lycans, I get it all wrong"

Selene rolled her eyes, smiling wider, and rolled onto her stomach

"There's nothing left now, we destroyed it; nothing to get wrong"

"No," said Michael, kissing her shoulder, "like, what to do with the new coven, what to teach the new vampires, all that"

"Being an immortal is mostly instinct, and you were neither species so you can't teach them much that they can grasp. Honestly, I worry more about what's going to happen to them now as there isn't a war on – you never saw the in-house vampires who weren't Death Dealers, they... talked, they lived on rumours and plotted on how to get up the aristocracy ladder. They used to get so bored they would try '_hunting parties'_ and we would have to round them up and deal with whatever they'd done, killing witnesses... but Death Dealers had rules. We hated Lycans, there were things that made the world work. The Young Covens don't have that, they have either death or an eternity to fill, without the help of rules, Elders, social-climbing antics, and they can't go in the sun. Daniel tells me they're making friends with the Lycans, and as soon as that becomes normal there isn't much left afterwards"

"They could help in the treaty" said Michael

Selene didn't answer that, which he took customarily as 'no'

"They don't need to be involved," she said, sounding a shade like her old soldier-like self, "I lived for the kill for centuries and I have to learn not to, but that's my problem..."

"That's what's bothering you, isn't it? You lived as a human for something like five minutes compared to your whole life hating Lycans and killing them, and now it's over... it's gotta be killing you!"

Selene shook her head

"I would have left it all anyway; when I kissed you in the interrogation house, everything changed, and this was always going to happen; only at least we killed Viktor"

Viktor, they both knew, would have wanted both of them dead within the night if he'd not been killed himself

"And if Viktor hadn't died by us, Markus would have found some way and he would have Lycans creating Hell on earth with a tiny legion of Death dealers to keep them back enough to keep the humans breeding, and really only Amelia had any chance of keeping us all together, and I think she was planning on giving it all up"

"Really? How do you know?"

Selene's face seemed to age a few decades.

"Whenever she ruled things were much calmer; it wasn't about killing Lycans or assassinating each other like Markus liked us to do, and we used to talk about things, she hinted at things like she would go and never come back given the chance, or if the Covens dissolved like they nearly did sometimes, she wouldn't try to make them up again like it was... so, our way of life was over, you just sped things up"

"But it's a part of you," insisted Michael, "you're one of, what, twenty others left who lived in the Covens, you're still used to it and it's been two years out of six hundred that you haven't, and like you said, there's no rules or Elders or anything anymore"

Selene sighed heavily and leaned on him, feeling him kiss her temple through her hair and lean his head on hers. She hadn't been able to tell him what it was like having just him instead of the life she'd had before. She shuddered internally.

"I think once the treaty's done, we'll get married, do the honeymoon, and decide what to do next, or do what I was used to doing before all this," he said, "and just take one day at a time, hey, maybe we could live like them sometimes"

Selene shook her head "Even if that didn't risk exposure, I can't live like a human"

"It would be a challenge" said Michael, a smile in his voice

"You would take a risk like that to keep ourselves amused for a while, a few decades if we're careful, and risk the world knowing about creatures more dangerous than them with weaknesses they already know about? I don't even know ours yet"

"No... maybe not" he conceded lightly

He couldn't help feeling a slight chill at the way she'd said 'a few decades' like 'a few weeks'

"Wow... you know, I thought you'd just got cold feet" he said after a while, which made her laugh, which was a really pretty one when you ever got to hear it

"Yes," she said, "instead of wondering if I could marry you, I wonder if I can stand eternity"

"And this is our pillow talk" he added, and the phone rang

It was oddly tactful, given the nature of phone calls, to arrive just at a good time. Selene answered it, turning over onto her back and reaching, then froze. Michael listened to what sounded like a Russian voice

"You're certain," she said, a statement, not a question, "who is it?"

She closed the phone and got out of bed "the Latvian girl, Johanna, she's pregnant, it's a hybrid"

Michael was totally stunned "They've only been there four months!"

"Well, apparently Yegor, the father, couldn't be more proud, and his whole family of vampire-hating Lycans, are having a Viktor-fit"

00000

Buffy heard her phone go off in the depths of her dream and finally answered because Faith had punched her

"Answer it, God!"

"I can't believe sharing with you is a privilege" Buffy mumbled

"Well, feel free to take an eighth of the couch downstairs and I won't have to share with you and a wall of pillows"

Slayers were finding rented flats and houses, but that still left the newbies, the more mentally-delicate slayerettes, and some grads to attempt keeping some order, the two slayers and the two watchers, and no one was allowed to sleep outside. And more were still coming in.

Slayers were still getting the call from their mountain-villages (or huts, sometimes), their hyper-religious settlements, and other places. Even an eight-year-old from China had gotten it, and was living with a slayerette, who was really a grad because she'd been one of the first newbies, but had brought her family in and didn't graduate because her son fell sick on the apocalypse.

"Buffy, we have a problem"

"Selene? What's up?"

The whole room sat up simultaneously

"Do you remember what really started the vampire-Lycan war?" she asked, her voice tense

"Um, wasn't it, someone's daughter got with a Lycan...?"

"Yes, Viktor's daughter, she was pregnant with Lucian's child, and it's happened again in the Young Covens"

Buffy was sure she was missing something

"That's the vampires you guys... um..."

"The vampires left from the old covens started to even the odds by turning humans so one day they could make a new attack, but we stopped it, and now the new vampires are hiding in Russia with a clan of Lycans, only the father's family is a lot like Viktor was"

Buffy immediately got out of bed

"Tell me more" she said, starting to go to Dawn's room. The house was abuzz with mid-morning activity, but she should be there

"They have connections everywhere, they could pull every Lycan who doesn't like the treaty to them in a couple of days and then we'd be looking at war again. Daniel managed to hide the couple but things are already ugly, I need every trained slayer you have, get everything you need and get over here, we'll meet you in St. Petersburg"

The phone cut off

"Buffy!" called Giles from the stairs

"Giles!" she called back, catching a flying pole which came out of the room whose door she was opposite and threw it back in, and strode over

"I wouldn't bother you, only there's been an apocalypse..."

"We need every slayer, I mean all of them, there's..."

"...been an issue concerning Wolfram&Hart, Angel's..."

"... war thing the Lycans and vampires had is starting again, only – _what_?"

"Angel's been found, barely alive, he stopped the hellmouth in L.A. by himself – what do you mean the war's started again?"

"It's big, _big_ big, we need all the slayers, grads and anyone good enough to make an army – what do you mean he's barely alive?"

"Dawn's spell went off, it showed us what happened. We have someone taking care of him but it's not good, and we can't pull the strings we used to now; Wolfram&Hart is gone"

"Who's got him?" she asked numbly

"A coven of witches in Oregon"

Coven, thought Buffy

"How do we get that many slayers to Russia, fast, without planes? We don't have the money for that!"

"Call Selene" said Dawn

Buffy spun round, finding her sister hurriedly pulling on a jacket, Buffy dialled the number

"Yes?"

"We're coming, but we need flights"

"How many are coming?"

"Um...Dawn, do you know how many can fight a war, like I did?" she asked

"117" Dawn answered instantly

Buffy's eyes widened with shock and repeated the number

"How many can physically fight?" demanded Selene more edgy

Dawn took the phone from her and suddenly the conversation went much faster

"Well, we've trained 117; they all lived through hell-mouths, but we have more half-trained, then you got nearly three hundred... no, they've all got like, the instincts, but the new ones haven't even seen a demon before... all of them? Maybe, like, five hundred, if we look, we can make it six, but we'd have to go out and get'm... yeah, well, Buffy mostly got one-on-one with vampires, she never had to jump into a war... hey, they're strong but they're scared, they would die before they could learn anything..."

Dawn found herself lifted in the air by a gentle hand lifting her by the back of the neck and Buffy took the phone off her while Faith held her.

"Don't deprive a gal a good fight, chick, you'll piss 'em off" said Faith, grinning, putting her down

"Don't pick up girls by the neck, you'll piss them off" snapped Dawn, eyeing her ferociously

Buffy shut the phone and looked at the time "It's only ten fifteen, and I got an Angel-problem, a war that could kill most of Russia by Friday, and we're going in a Hercules airplane by lunch"

"Oh my God, they didn't sell it?" asked Dawn, causing everyone to look at her

"You knew they had one?"

Dawn's face lit up

"Buffy, you wouldn't believe it; they sold two gunship helicopters to the British because they don't need them on the _smaller_ aircraft carrier they have, because Markus blew up the bigger one! This guy, Alexander Corvinus, he left it all to Michael, and... I looked through Selene's computer" she explained, not looking very ashamed

"This kid is awesome!" said Faith, putting an arm around Dawn

"Dawn, you are simply the most dangerous child I ever knew" said Giles, giving her a look that had always seemed reproachful to Buffy, but Dawn smiled back conspirator-style and Giles's mouth twitched at the corners. Buffy suddenly felt left out.

"She has certainly come along in many ways," said Giles later, handing Buffy a mug of tea as Slayers around them were whirling in a storm of getting ready to leave, "she has taught herself to retain vast amounts of information, she actually challenges herself to do better than me... well, I was born with a photographic memory and knew more dead languages at her age than she'll know before she dies, but she's doing very well. When she started doing things with computers, I only knew because Willow called me saying Dawn had disarmed most of her personal firewalls and had got past most of the encryptions... like I said, if I wasn't keeping a sharp eye on her at all times, I'd be seriously worried"

"I'm seriously worried" mumbled Buffy, but her mind was totally elsewhere

"Yes, well, I learned enough from you to have an idea what to expect... Buffy, I think if he's going to live, the coven will make sure he does" he added shrewdly

Buffy looked up "The dream told me to stay away from him..." she said quietly

"On all accounts, he did an amazing thing, Buffy, he had only himself, a disarmed demon-goddess and one human to rely on against a massive army of all manner of demons, and I really can't believe he's alive"

"How did that coven get there?" asked Buffy, watching a couple of newbies being separated by Rosheen as they fought hand-to-hand combat over a pair of shoes

"Willow asked them, she was worried, but it was over by the time they got there and he'd dispelled the horde of whatever it was, and they found him under the wreckage of the building"

"When was it?"

"Last night"

"Where is he now?"

"Spokane in Washington, they have a Healing Centre there in the mountains"

Buffy looked at him, and steeled herself

"They don't know" said Giles

"Know what?"

"If he'll be alright"

Buffy's shoulders slumped. Russia could take weeks if the conditions were good, which they never were, and Angel could die today...

She breathed a single sigh and made her decision. Selene could be general today.

"Tell Faith she's leading this till I get there; get Selene to book me a flight leaving on Thursday from L.A., I'll pay her back, just tell her I have to do this"

00000

Dawn was busy organising everyone using two phones simultaneously to meet the hybrids at an airfield somewhere, and looked at Buffy's face as she approached for nearly a whole second and answered the explanation

"I knew you would, so I called a cab" she said, smiling

"Honestly, this whole empathy thing is still creepy, but I could get used to it" said Buffy, hugging her

"The bus goes in half an hour, you should make it," said Dawn, "and I'll see you in Russia"

"Wait, what? No!"

"Buffy, you don't have time to argue, and I'm _going_, so go get your cab"

"You sound just like Mom" said Buffy quietly, and kissed her sister on the forehead before picking up her bag, her purse and a coat and getting in the cab.

00000

Selene rang a satellite phone when they had boarded the plane. It was in fact a bigger plane than a Hercules, and was called a Globemaster C-17, which could hold a huge amount of cargo, but now had been hastily kitted out for four hundred-odd passengers, which was everyone who could get to the airfield by three pm, and everyone was given a rucksack bag, which they excitedly looked into.

"Don't get too excited," called Dawn, "it's got survival blankets because we're going to a really high altitude to save time, and the food has to last _ten hours_"

"Ohhhh my gosh, you can't be telling me we'll be stuck in a plane, with no movies, strapped to the walls and just shiver for ten hours" said a newbie, looking at the plane as if it was personally responsible for this disruption to her daily routine, Dawn looked over and gave her a glare that would have made Buffy proud

"Hey, Cathy, you know in my school we have a rowing team, and they would go train out in three feet of snow, and they had a phrase for you; man up! Welcome to saving the world, you're all slayers now"

Dawn, now in the plane on the phone to Selene, was totally unaware of the fire of hope, fierce pride and Hollywood-style purposefulness she had inadvertently sparked off. I'm sure it had a theme tune, something very uplifting and passionate, but Dawn was too busy yelling into the phone

"What?" she screamed over the engine noise that makes your bones vibrate

"IS-BUFFY-WITH-YOU?" yelled Michael, who had a better voice for this

"No! She went to find Angel!"

"Why?"

"Ask her when she gets there! She wants a flight from L.A. to St. Petersburg on Thursday!"

On the other end, Selene, sitting across the room from Michael, was already booking it

"Tell Dawn she forgot to reset the encryptions" she murmured, making Michael smile

Dawn, her ear aching from having the phone pressed to it so hard, heard Michael speak again but was certain she got it wrong; 'booze on Mars?'

"What?"

"Choose my car!"

"What?"

"WHO'S IN CHARGE?"

"Me!" she screamed back defiantly

"OK – WHO REPLACES BUFFY?"

"Oh, Faith!"

"Can we talk to her?"

Faith was happily swinging from the bars at the top of the plane where the top seats had been converted into beds so at least twenty slayers could sleep at a time.

"I can't reach her right now"

"Don't worry! See you in Russia!"

Meanwhile, newbies and slayerettes were listening to their own theme tunes of the mantle-holding, torch-passing Slayer moment at maximum volume, were snoring and drooling gently on each other's shoulders.


	7. The twins return

**Note to the readers, I'm bringing up some characters I made from In the Realm of the Dead, it's not obligatory to understand what's going on, but you'll understand it better if you do. For all you readers that have read it already, nice one, you'll understand it all!**

**00000**

Buffy had felt an odd, heavy sensation in her stomach. To distract herself from the cause of it she tried to locate exactly where it was to the nearest inch.

She finally arrived, thirteen hours after leaving, at the bus station that Giles told her was the one (which looked exactly the same as every bus station before it, right down to the benches and the corner shop, which made Buffy wonder if there was an commissioned architect out there with OCD), and knew the witch waiting for her.

"You know, I'm gonna stop asking how you get around so much" she said, hugging Willow

Willow managed to return the smile, "Kennedy answered your call, actually I sent her before Dawn called her, so I was here anyway"

"I'm sorry, you know how it is, world always needing saving" said Buffy as they walked down a deserted road with open shops looking hopefully at the passing pedestrian

"And she hasn't had to fight much, it makes her antsy" said Willow, Buffy realised she was holding her hand and decided she would hold it back just because Willow was clearly in pain and needed the contact, and Willow didn't know she was doing it

"So how was that thing in Ireland?" she asked

"It moved to Wales, there's a really old tribe there, some are original slaves from Viktor's castle, you can see why they liked Celtic landscapes... they didn't join the de Mormonts because they're just restarting the war everyone was trying to end"

There was something in Willow's expression that made Buffy grin

"You had to get Kennedy to tell them that?"

"Yeah" she said, and they finally laughed

There was an odd necklace, looking distinctly magical in its ugliness and its too-old-to-be-antique aura

"You keeping an eye on her with that?" she asked, which surprised Willow in her shrewdness

"I can tell if she's alive, in pain or not, or if there's danger"

"She's fighting a few hundred super-werewolves" said Buffy sceptically

"If she gets beyond a certain point, it burns and we can get her home using a spell"

Buffy worried about magicking a critically injured girl across the Atlantic and most of Europe, but also knew that a goddess will look after her girlfriend if she wants to

"So, are you OK? About all this...?" asked Willow, giving her hand a squeeze

"I dunno," said Buffy feeling the weight in her diaphragm give a tug and was surprised when Willow put a hand on her own

"Are you doing that empathy thing?" she demanded, suddenly feeling invaded

"Not intentionally, I think it's because you're a slayer and I'm..." but Willow trailed off uncomfortably

"Oh yeah, I heard about Julia, so you're actually a deity now? Do you know yet?" she asked

Willow was quiet for a long time

"No... I mean, nothing changed... I can feel where slayers are when I need to, your camp thing in England is like a magnet, so it makes it easier to know who else is left... and I can connect to them, I can help them with the visions and stuff where I can't do so well usually..."

"Yeah, but when you say you want some tea, you get fights over who makes it, and people kneel to you..."

The tea incident was rarely mentioned. Kennedy usually made it, but then some of the more eager newbies had wanted a go, then the grads wanted to, and a fight developed until Willow had walked into the commotion and said 'stop!', and everyone had instantly stopped and stood still. At which point Kennedy had given her the mug and informed everyone tea-making, or any kind of 'making' was her area and everyone had to remember that before she pummelled them, but it had been the whole thing of Willow giving commands that scared people – she had an army of slayers just begging to be at her beck-and-call.

"I was told there's a big section that had me in it in the vision they all got, only I looked different" said Willow, looking very embarrassed

"I remember Kennedy's face after the spell, she didn't notice the vamps for a _while_" laughed Buffy

They chattered aimlessly for a good half an hour until they reached a manicure/pedicure stylist and walked in, the girl at the desk smiled at Willow and Willow walked past into the back and outside, where suddenly, they were faced with a garden.

It was essentially a very big pond, fully inhabited with what looked like local wildlife, with shrubs and small trees inhabiting islands which were all connected by little bridges. The main bridge, which went over the main pond, had runes carved in the planks every so often.

"I think I just landed in the America's answer to a Japanese spa" muttered Buffy, making Willow laugh

"They're enthusiastic" she answered, which made her sound like a slightly care-worn teacher

"So they live here?" asked Buffy, noting there was even a large, pointy rock sticking up out of the water, covered in several shades of green moss

"Yeah, the water helps them keep in touch with magic stuff happening – it's complicated" she added at Buffy quizzical expression

"So if they put cucumber on my eyes, do I eat it or not?"

"I think you'd have to ask them" said Willow grinning

Inside, everything changed, the building was all exposed wood and stone, practically nothing in terms of decoration except skylights and windows, and a girl who looked barely in her teens approached them

"They're in the sanctuary, follow me" she said in a strange pseudo-American-something accent

"That's one of the leader's daughters, she goes to school near here" explained Willow quietly

Buffy nodded, thinking perhaps Dawn wasn't getting so strange a life as she'd thought, and then remembered that she was now in Russia with two hybrids and over five hundred slayers, stopping the Lycans from going to war with themselves and everyone else. Selene had rung yesterday to tell her Dawn had landed and was safe and organising the slayers with almost intimidating authority.

Buffy had had an uncomfortable flight from England contemplating the outcome of everything that was happening, as it was Friday the 13th when all of this had happened. She realised Dawn was never going to be normal, and could hope for, at best, someone to come along and accept her and her lifestyle – like her willingness to go to Russia and defend a young Vampire-Lycan family without help and without Buffy to personally protect her, that meant dedication and acceptance.

The sanctuary was an empty room accept chairs had been put in it and a bed sat in the middle, and in it, asleep, was Angel.

"He is very weak" said a woman, who looked like her daughter, who now stood behind her

"Is he going to be OK?" asked Buffy

"We don't know, a demon poison was circulated through his system, it took Willow's power to cleanse it all; it resisted most of our efforts"

Willow hadn't mentioned her involvement and shrugged when Buffy caught her eye

"We only stay in here to keep a healing atmosphere, but I think you will do better," said the woman, and rose, as did everyone, and just as she was about to pass Buffy she held out a hand "I am Rose, this is my daughter Kylie"

It explained the strange accent of Kylie's; her mother was Australian. Everyone left, and Buffy took a chair and went to hold Angel's hand.

The minute she did, she felt a hidden, repressed part of her heal. She was whole. It would go away again soon, very soon, but right now she could bask in it. She hadn't seen him since the Big Bad, when he had joined Wolfram and Hart she had done everything she could to stay away from him, even sending twenty slayerettes to fetch the one he'd found instead of coming herself.

"Buffy" he whispered

"Hey," she whispered, suddenly paying attention and leaning closer, "how are you feeling?"

"Don't ask," he whispered, grinning, "better than before"

"I heard you did an apocalypse by yourself, you should have called me" she said quietly

"Actually, Blue did most of it, a demon she was fighting did something to her and she got all her power back at once and it blasted everything... she died, or she left, but she managed not to kill me, she must have really liked me" he said, laughing hoarsely

Buffy didn't know what he was talking about and just smiled and stroked his hair

"I missed you" she said

"I missed you" he answered, and Buffy kissed him, feeling him put a hand on her neck and feeling the world blissfully disappear. At that minute, she realised she'd been worried that she'd get here and that wouldn't happen, that so much had happened that she wouldn't feel the same anymore.

They kissed for a long time and finally Buffy was lying next to him on the bed

"Would some of my blood help?" she asked

"I don't know, maybe" he said, his voice still sounding horribly weak. She lay there next to him and tried not to think of everything else, which, for some reason, was easy.

"You know, since coming here, I look back at the last few years and felt like none of it could actually have happened, you know?" he said

"Until when?" asked Buffy, who was up on one elbow and stroking his hair (in which he basked like a cat)

"Until just after I left you... actually, when Wolfram and Hart gave us their office"

"I didn't believe it either until you got plane tickets for the newbies"

"I think we just tried to do too much" said Angel, whose eyes had closed

"Just take some of this, relax" she said, offering her arm.

00000

When the Globemaster landed, everyone was amazed the world was so quiet. It had actually been nearly eleven hours because of difficult crosswinds, and they had had to land in a field on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, which, Dawn found out later, had required some serious string-pulling, favour calling, lying, bullying, buying, scaring, bribing, glaring ("Don't ask" said Selene), and 'threatening' ("Really, don't ask" said Michael) to get it. It had been a lot to do within a day, especially with Russian politics being as they were in nowadays climate.

They had been put in a hotel, which had to be 'closed for emergency maintenance', on account on what Selene had threatened to do to the rest of the hotel compared to what she had done to the manager's office (walking through his wall) and what she would do to him if he ever, ever breathed a word to anyone about it (make him do the same with a new bit of wall).

The slayers were much, much happier, until they realised they had to get straight to business.

"We're meeting the Lycan clans in an hour, we are leaving in ten minutes, make sure you're all ready" Selene had announced to the gathered girls in the hotel foyer.

They left out of the back in groups for discretion's sake and walked out of the city limits.

Dawn and Faith walked with Selene and Michael, who were holding hands just by loosely linking fingers, which was, to Dawn's eyes, was so casual it was unendingly romantic.

Faith, who had left Robin in America because she wanted him to have nothing to do with this, tried not to look at them too much.

"Vampires have gathered again," said Selene "all of them, we heard people from both sides that have lived alone under rocks have come"

"So, what, this is a convention for them?" asked Faith, grinning

"Last time, none of us got a say in this war and it swallowed us in it, so they all want a say now" snapped Selene

"So, what are we here for, to stop anyone doing something stupid?" demanded Dawn

"In a way," said Selene, giving her a careful look, "everyone in the treaty is standing with us, so really it's going to be us and the new covens, against anyone else who has Viktor-issues"

"And, what, if they won't agree with us we kill them?" asked Dawn, getting more heated

"Honestly," said Michael, cutting in, "we haven't decided yet"

"You know, they're human, and Buffy's still The slayer; if one of them gets bitten, they'll turn" growled Dawn, suggesting that if that happened, she held them responsible

Selene decided there had to be a Summers' gene that made both Buffy and Dawn similarly fiery.

"Hey, chick," said Faith, putting an arm around her, "you gotta tell me who made your batteries, you didn't sleep on the plane and you're wired!"

"Mom," said Dawn "if you knew what art galleries needed to run, you'd know"

"I just know you're not even a slayer and you're doing better than most of them back there, you didn't even eat!"

"I don't like peanuts, chocolate pudding or crackers at 45,000 feet. I don't like anything at 45,000 feet"

"Well, damn, you're like Buffy on speed" said Faith laughing

Despite herself, Dawn found herself laughing.

00000

Buffy had donated as much as she could handle giving him and was eating a steak and a smoothie with several Vitamin B tablets to wash down. Kylie was doing her homework, drinking a glass of water in tiny sips every so often. There was something pretty creepy about a twelve-year-old voluntarily studying and without demanding snacks of every flavour.

She washed her dish and glass in the tiny kitchen unit, which apparently fed the entire house and only two cupboards were filled with what looked like packets of different coloured chicken feed, and the kid was there in the door, Buffy had sensed her there and smiled

"You know, most people would find that creepy" she said, not turning round

"Do you?" she asked just as calmly

"Kinda, but I've seen all kinds of creepy. You I can cope with"

Kylie watched her put the things on the drainer and appeared puzzled

"You are in love with the dead man" she stated, causing Buffy to lock eyes with her

"Yeah" she said

"He's not dead, not for long. I don't know why I think that" Kylie said, and walked away, making Buffy wonder why people who used magic all the time say stuff they weren't prepared to explain or discuss, and headed after her, but she's already gone out into the garden

"Wierd" she muttered, and then heard a cry from inside

"Buffy!"

She bolted inside the room and saw the witches, all including Willow, holding down a thrashing Angel

"What happened?" she demanded, joining the fray and neatly pinning him to the table with one hand on his chest

"We don't know, he threw up the blood and something happened, he's... we can feel something, it's not supposed to happen!"

"Willow, can't you do something?" she demanded, seeing Angel's eyes had gone a horrible green colour

"Like what?" demanded Willow, being held aloft by the arm she was meant to be holding down, "We don't know what it is!"

00000

When Selene arrived with her army of slayers (divided into five waves for impressions' sake), they were met in the hills by Daniel.

"It is good to see you" he said, smiling

"Where are we meeting?" she asked him, shaking his hand

"They are already here, but Selene, there's not just vampires and Lycans there is a... a gathering of creatures we don't know!"

Selene took twenty slayers including Kennedy, who had the details of the Lycans in Ireland and Wales, including the finer details of Lycan history, and a direct link to Willow for back-up, and went at a light run to a hazel thicket where Daniel had brought the 'creatures' to wait.

Selene saw a group of people that smelled vaguely familiar, but couldn't place the scent at all, and a whole host of others that smelled totally unfamiliar.

Coming to a halt near the people who tugged at Selene's memory, a woman look at her and Selene felt her heart stop.

"Móirne" she breathed, and the woman didn't smile, but gave a worried nod. Beside her was a man who looked at her equally worried, tense

"Sléibhín" she said, and he nodded back

"You know them?" asked Daniel

"Yes" said Selene numbly

"Who are they?" asked Kennedy, her hand in a jacket pocket where her stake was ready

"Old acquaintances" said Selene, still staring, and felt Michael's hand take hers. And swallowed. And took another moment. And swallowed again. She would have thrown up if she was able to.

**It's good to see you**

"Don't!" snapped Selene, nearly shouting and glaring at Móirne, who looked embarrassed

"Shall we take this aside?" asked Sléibhín, indicating to his right, and Selene nodded, and put a hand on Michael's chest

"I'll be fine, stay here" she murmured

"No" he said simply

"Just stay, I'll be fine!" she repeated firmly

"No," he repeated just as firmly, and raised a hand "just pretend we argued, 'cause I'm not going to let you go alone"

Selene rolled her eyes and told the slayers to stay there, and gave Michael the look to keep shtum.

"So, what brings you here?" she asked them

"This concerns all of us," said Móirne evenly, "your war has very nearly exposed us all many times, we have interests in keeping peace in the name of this treaty – I hear you changed?" she added quizzically

"In what sense, in the Code or the breed?" Selene snarled

Móirne winced at the reference and Sléibhín answered "Breed, we meant"

We, noted Michael, although it was very obvious they were twins. The only thing that distinguished them was Sléibhín's heavier, more masculine jaw line and brow. They both had orange-reddish-gold eyes, and extremely pale skin and hair.

"Yes, I became a hybrid" Selene answered, still very slightly hostile

"Viktor would turn in his grave" said Móirne

"So you know, then?" asked Selene, her eyes narrowing, "Good, because if I killed Viktor I won't stop from killing anyone else threatening what I'm here for"

"You never did" said Móirne, smiling

Michael grew alarmed at the power these two were having over her behaviour, she was _furious_.

"And you found more of your own?" Selene asked, moving on from the pointed lack of answer

"Yes, we are another breed of vampire; it seems there is more than one"

"There is another as well, that is more like a demon in human form, being soulless" said Selene, her face now entirely blank

"Yes, we heard that also" said Sléibhín, who seemed to be trying to more friendly on account of the tension, which Michael wanted to warn him was a mistake

"And so how many are you?" asked Selene a little more harshly

"Selene" said Móirne gently

"Don't!" warned Selene furiously

"Selene, please" Móirne asked again

"Я не задолжаю вам ничего!" she snarled, her voice trembling from rage "And when this is done, you will leave, now how many are you?" she asked more forcefully

"We represent our race, the vote of the covens"

The word 'coven' seemed to have snapped something, and Selene's eyes snapped straight to pale green

"Selene" said Michael suddenly, putting an arm around the front of her waist and pulling her away by the wrist. To his surprise she came willingly

"I can't stay focused, not with them there" she said with clenched teeth

"Hey, what did they do to you?" he asked, wrapping both arms around her back. She sighed and shook her head

"You weren't there, Michael. We don't have time right now for me to explain" she said in a hollow, quiet voice, putting her hands on his hips

"God" breathed Michael and kissed her on the forehead, which made her grip slightly harder

"I'll be fine, let's get on with it, we've already wasted time" she said, pulling away abruptly and stalking back past them, her eyes were still green

"If you're on our side, stay away from me" she growled in their direction as she went back and met with Kennedy

"They going to be any trouble?" she asked, eyeing the twins emerging from the forest back to their group, standing close together, arms at their sides, murmuring very quietly to each other.

"No" said Selene and met with a boy standing with five completely enormous wolves. Michael noted her eyes were back to normal and wondered at her self-control. They nodded to the boy.

"Name's Jacob" he said, nodding to her, "these are my friends" he said, indicating the wolves behind him with a hand

"You're werewolves?" asked Michael, at which the boy grinned

"No, shape-shifters actually, but we have a wolf tradition," he said, and grew more serious, "we've protected humans from you and you're kind since the beginning, and if you're stopping this war, we're with you"

"Strange how you defend them so well we never heard of you" said Kennedy snidely

"When we hunt someone, they don't hang out to talk about it" said Jacob, meeting her gaze

"You have experience fighting?" asked Selene

"Yes, ma'am" he said, grinning again, "them over there" he said, nodding at the twins' group

"You hunt them?" demanded Michael

"If they hunt humans, we hunt them, and we like it" said Jacob, his grin growing darker

"Good to have you" said Selene, smiling slightly, and moved on

There were five kinds of demons, two more kinds of both vampires and werewolves, and Selene looked happier as they went on.

"We far outnumber the de Mormonts" she said, walking to the meeting place with a member of each race (not with the twins, but a very tall, wild-looking woman in skins who wouldn't speak but only nodded or shook her head)

The slayers, the treaty-side Lycans and the rest of the army followed them out to face off the Lycans across the top of the other hill, and on their hill was a couple and two Lycans.

"Meet the happy couple," said Daniel, smiling, "Johanna and Yegor Schwartz" the couple, looking extremely tense and worried, nodded

"You took her name? Retro" said Kennedy, making Yegor smile

"My name is not much of a legacy I would give to my child" he explained

"We estimate our force of about eight hundred, we understand the de Mormonts force is of about six hundred?" asked Daniel

"Yes, just" said Yegor, "many of them are called favours"

"Let's talk" said Selene, smiling, and they positioned themselves in a rough U-shape around the couple, and made their way down

The de Mormonts were fairly ordinary-looking except for their long, matted hair kept in a rough pony tail tied between the shoulder blades. Selene noted Yegor had shaved his hair.

"You bring strangers to a family gathering, Yegor" said the woman

"I did not ask them to come, Mother" said Yegor stiffly

"And so why are they here?" asked the man

"We came because we will not have war again" said Daniel calmly. He looked oddly out of place, being so young

"You know of war, boy? Did you see any before Mummy allowed you out so late tonight?" asked the man, sneering

"My parents died for it, my comrades' brother and sisters died for it, my lineage is in it, as is yours and all our kind, because someone said one race was beneath theirs and did not allow a couple to be in love" snarled Daniel, indicating his comrades, the other Lycan leaders that had come down the hill with them

"And what business is it of yours?" asked the woman to all of them "We object to their union, and so you come for a stand against the bloodlines?"

"Pure blood was an excuse vampires used" said Selene, her soldier's face fixed

"And you would know, Death Dealer" said a man standing beside the de Mormonts

"And I killed the man who used it" she added in a suggestive, steely whisper

"And you, hybrid," spat Mr de Mormonts "you come to defend your own race; by the pollution of ours, yours is bred"

"Our common ancestor was of both bloods" said Selene

"He was of neither, the pure source, his sons were not even fully of his blood!" spat the man at the de Mormonts' shoulders

"I am," said Selene, "but we can move on from this, because the facts are simple and you avoid it; you wish to kill an unborn child, its mother, and most likely your son, and so his friends will go to war with your friends, and the war will start again because we can spread our affliction so easily, and then we risk everything – human technology is getting more advanced. The holes we hid in are closing, in Viktor and Lucian's war half the money spent over the entire history of it was spent in covering and secrecy measures, and we cannot afford such measures to keep up with the humans' world. You must also consider the numbers of others that plan to stop what you're doing. If you chose war, we would kill you all in an hour. We don't want a treaty written with blood, it would look as if you must be in the treaty or die, and that is not the nature of it"

"And so you propose we accept _this_?" snarled the man, pointing at Johanna

"Yes" said Kennedy

"And what do humans do here?" asked Mrs de Mormonts

"Slayers, actually, call us the human reps with benefits" she answered, mimicking Buffy's mocking, threatening tone exactly

"I'm sure" sneered the man

"And you are?" asked Yegor coldly

"The last of the Lycan slaves, who escaped from Viktor himself"

"Actually, there's nine more of you in Europe," said Kennedy, "Mattock says hi"

"Does he?" asked the man, looking uncertain

"Yeah, they don't like this either, neither do all their clans" said Kennedy smiling, raising nine symbols, insignia and trinkets on leather thongs

"In short, Father, you are outnumbered, badly, we only ask you leave us be" said Yegor

"You do not call me father, you are dead to me" he hissed and addressed the group "we concede this filth, this outrage, on the basis we could not survive the fight for truth"

"You call it truth, keeping a war, present or past, between two peoples?" asked Johanna

The parents of Yegor simply glared at her while the Viktor-slave spat at her and Selene moved and blocked Yegor from attacking him

The man smirked, but was grabbed by the throat by the very tall, wild vampire of the twins' race

"Apologise" she growled, lifting him clear off the ground, easily, like he was a doll

"Nnnev-rr" he snarled

"I am a neutral party, slave-man," she said, smiling, "if I crush your throat, all that happened was I took offence to you; it is nothing to the issue at hand"

The man seemed to contemplate this as he clawed harmlessly at her arm and stared in her lividly red eyes, even trying to change as she held him, and then seemed to realise this would not help the constriction issue on his throat

"I will grip tighter the longer you wait"

At last he made a two-syllable, hissing sound and she relaxed her grip "Again" she said

"Sorry" he said in a hoarse, broken voice

"For what?" she asked

"For the insult to... the lady"

She put him down and nodded to the watching de Mormonts

"I insist on manners" she said, which no one could tell was a threat or not, or really why she had addressed them. Kennedy was watching her with an appreciative smile.

As the Lycans made their way back over the hill, everyone walked back and Selene took Michael's hand. They told the slayers to go get some rest, called a general thanks to the other demons and a silver blur made them stop

The twins had appeared in front of them

"I made it clear" said Selene

"We hate that we've hurt you" said Sléibhín

"It was centuries gone," said Selene, slipping into their old language and letting go of Michael's hand "should I still take offence, it is nothing to you"

"But it is, we have regretted it long and did not know how to approach you" said Móirne

Selene's eyes had gone blue

"You have to answer to nothing!" she spat, "I was but a pawn of the system, a subject of the Code. You did as the Code-makers would, and we all fought to protect it before then, what you have done was only right to that!"

"It was written in stone, but not right for all that" said Móirne heavily

"I believed it was right, and you completed its own predicted end! In completing it, I ended it, there is nothing more to be said"

"But it broke you" said Sléibhín

Selene had no answer to that for a long time

"It changed me," she said "it made me value sense over Viktor's rules, over any tradition, covenant or revenge, had you not done it, Viktor would be alive and the world be different for us all"

"You killed Viktor because he killed your family" said Sléibhín, confused

"Did you know that before or after?" Selene demanded, suddenly more agitated

"After" said Móirne

"But you know what it would mean if you said otherwise" said Selene bitterly

"You wouldn't kill us" said Móirne gently

Selene wouldn't, she realised, which made her angrier

"I killed Viktor because he had us all at war for the sake of revenge and his own arrogance... and he threatened Michael" she added, inclining her head to her left where Michael stood

They nodded to each other

"The pain we caused must be resolved, it has grown in you" said Móirne

"In this last century everyone has begun to think all pain is answerable, all wrongs righted with words" spat Selene

"Selene" said Michael gently, and she looked at him and glared

"I don't even recognise you," he said, "I don't know anything about what they did, but you're letting it rot inside you, and you're the one who said stuff has to die sometime"

Selene exhaled angrily at him "Have you seen it affecting me, before now?" she demanded

"It will from now on, though, now it's come up" he said

"And so, what now?" she demanded loudly at the twins, back in English, "what would you do to heal it?"

"We do not know yet" said Sléibhín

"The answer is you can't," she said more calmly "not because I keep a grudge willingly, but because the means by which you did me wrong were, to us, not wrong, and to me still not wrong, because you did it for a reason I understand, and the those means are now dust anyway. The pain left is what came from loving you all, and knowing that in when you loved me, you killed me in the only way that mattered"

"Then the answer lies in remaking what we broke" said Sléibhín

"Yes," said Selene impatiently, "I knew this the moment I saw you, and I also knew I could not let you, what you did remade me so that that door was closed, especially against you!"

Michael then grabbed her hand "I need to talk to you"


	8. Unpayable Debts

Selene kept hold of Michael's hand, half aware of the world and half consumed by her thoughts.

"Who was the pale chick?" asked Faith to Michael

"Not sure," he said, "they had weird names and Selene knew them"

"Yeah, but look what they did to her!" said Faith, knowing there wasn't any point in whispering at such close range – or any range.

"Sléibhín and Móirne were... comrades" said Selene after a while

"Yeah, I could see all kinds of reminiscing goin' on," said Faith, eyebrows raised, "but I was talkin' to some of those others, that tall gal too, they're good to have on the team, are they helping keep watch?"

"From a distance" said Michael, smiling slightly

"Right... hey D – plan?" Faith asked Dawn, who was on the phone

"Willow's trying to do something about the language issue," she said, "we're all sleeping in the big dining room, light-sensitive vamps stay in the kitchen and the basement, and the crates with our weapons in arrived, we should be OK"

"So patrol the building, how do we tell _them_ from alliance Lycans?" asked Michael

"We're talking options" said Dawn irritably and continued on the phone

"They will attack during the day" said Daniel, addressing everyone, "when they have most advantage"

"Wait, your vampires can't do light either?" asked Faith

"No," said Selene

"We can" said a voice, they all looked to their left and the tall, red-eyed vampire was walking beside them, leading a neat crocodile formation of about twenty others including the twins

"Anything else we should know?" asked Daniel, taking her sudden appearance in his stride

"We have no allergies, no Achilles' heel, no weapon can kill us, should we require it we can reassemble... but we are very good at fighting" she added, her eyes glinting

Dawn, who had hung up, looked at her "Why did you come? If nothing hurts you, why does this matter to you?"

"We knew Alexander, we helped him contain the Coven War, but humans stood on the brink of discovering us all as time went on, so a final battle at this time had a good chance of exposure... and our kind takes this very seriously. We are lucky the Volturi did not know of this, or it could have been worse"

"The what?" asked Faith

"A... family," she said slowly, seeming at loath to have to speak so much, "they would kill you all for knowing of us, or they would bring you into their ranks... we are lucky" she repeated

They didn't ask any more, sensing she was getting more and more angry at speaking beyond direct need

"Dan, you sure they won't attack tonight?" asked Michael, who noticed Selene had slipped away altogether from the present and was staring with vampiric stillness at the air in front of her

Daniel looked thoughtful "No, they are angry and desperate enough to do anything; we will stay on guard with Zafrina's vampires and howl if they come"

"Who?" Michael asked

"The red-eyed ones, the leader's called Zafrina"

Zafrina, who mostly strode a slow, graceful stride beside, looked down at them pointedly and nodded. She was taller than everyone else there and dressed in animal skins, really who else could have been leader?

"I am not leader," she said quietly, gazing hard at Daniel, as she did to whoever she spoke to, "just the eldest"

"Right," said Daniel, nodding gracefully, "and anyone who needs sleep must do so tonight"

00000

ANGELUS

What? What is _this_?

There was nothing, neither light nor dark, just whatever was beyond both of them, but wherever he was he wasn't alone, and he was very, very small compared to the other thing(s)

YOU HAVE DONE

I am dead...

YOU ARE NOT AND NEVER WERE DEAD FOR YOU ARE NOT IN THE CORPOREAL DIMENSION

So, I'm... not dead?

There was an aura, in him and through him, of weary exasperation

DEATH DOES NOT EXIST HERE

Death can't come here but I can?

YES AS YOU ARE A SOUL

Oh

YOU HAVE DONE YOU WILL NOW GO ON TO YOUR NEXT

What is my next?

TO FACE DEATH

But I have been dead

DEATH AS WAS MEANT FOR YOU AT YOUR BIRTH AND THEREFORE YOU WILL BE RESTORED

Angel opened his eyes and the world slowly began to come together, the dim light, which came from candles, walls of stone and beams of rough wood, a familiar smell... a heat beat thudding in his ears.

He looked to his right.

There was an open door, and there was a small person, who fled. The heartbeat stayed in his ears. Then he realised he had to breathe.

Down the corridor, left, down that corridor, Kylie sprinted.

Buffy had been in agony, she had cried so hard she had alarmed all the witches in the coven, except Willow, who had held her and rocked her for hours until they'd both fallen asleep on Willow's bed leaning against the wall.

"Willow, come!" cried Kylie, grabbing her arm and shaking it hard

"What?" they both mumbled

"He's alive, you've gotta come!" she cried

Buffy didn't understand. She had held Angel down as he had struggled against them all, raging and snarling as his vampire self and with a brief convulsion, had suddenly stopped. His heart had beat, Buffy had felt it under her hand, it had beat three times, and then stopped. He'd gone. The Powers That Be had given him a human's death, in exchange for giving his life up to stop the ultimate apocalypse, that he'd not even told the slayers about, he'd simply given his life up as a shield in his vampiric form. That, apparently, had been his big reward.

Buffy literally bolted off the bed and skidded to a halt at the end of the corridor at the door where he lay on the other side.

She was afraid to open the door, both because it might be real, and it might not be.

She finally turned the handle summoning herself as a slayer to face up to whatever was inside, and walked in.

Angel was sitting on the side of his bed, looking at his hands, and he looked up at her

"I'm alive" he blurted and she stepped into his arms, throwing her own round him, sobbing.

"You died!" she gasped at last, putting both hands on his face

"I did?" he asked, his eyes wide

"Do you remember anything?" she asked, hands now on his shoulders

"No," he said, "I was... fighting... Blue exploded... it's all images, and then I was here"

Buffy laughed and kissed him, hardly daring to believe it, except he was warm, she could feel his breath on her face, actual breath, and as she gripped his arms she felt his heart pumping.

"Ow" he said

"Sorry" she said, stepping back slightly, but he grabbed her and pulled her back again, wrapping his arms around her and burying his head into her chest. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and wept into his hair. When Willow walked in she smiled and shut the door. If Buffy believed it, that was good enough. Now he was human he was now a year younger than her. She frowned, that was just weird.

Kylie stood in the doorway of the kitchen.

"Hey," said Willow, "you can go back to bed now"

Kylie looked at her, eyes wide open

"It was... it wasn't from here" she spluttered

"What wasn't?" asked Willow, deciding she should have a glass of water and walked with her into the kitchen

"The force... that power, it changed him, he died! Then it came, it's not from here"

"You felt it?" asked Willow, staring at her, Kylie didn't even nod; she didn't bother answering when she didn't need to "Did it wake you?"

She nodded, accepting the glass of water and staring at her

"Honey, it was in a prophesy that he'd be put back, that's all that happened" she said, sitting opposite

"It wasn't _them_!" Kylie said irritably, as if Willow was being slow on purpose, "it wasn't magic, it wasn't force from here, it was... not them"

"The Powers That Be, you mean, it wasn't them?" asked Willow, trying to figure this all out and feeling a hunch at the answer

"No" snapped Kylie impatiently

"Something beyond everything" Willow whispered, eyes narrowed, which earned a look from Kylie that translated as 'a slow clap for the so-called witch-genius'

"The change isn't for him," said Kylie, getting more agitated, "it was... a deep change"

'Deep' referred to a discussion the Coven was having about magic, time, the universe and space, which Kylie seemed to understand like a bird to flight. Then Willow understood what was upsetting her.

"Honey, I think the changes just go back to when he was bitten – maybe it wasn't meant to happen, and they had to wait for the right time"

"There isn't time _there_!" argued Kylie

"For us, I meant; I think he had to be in the right depth-place-time for him to be put back, you know we talked about what state someone's in before they die having its own weight? Maybe it's that"

Kylie drank her water in small sips for a long time, seeming to crunch this over in her mind.

"Maybe" she said at last

"Is it the change you feel or the change-making?" asked Willow, suddenly realising why this would upset her so much

"The change... it was so deep, not big, but it went all the way through" said Kylie, looking like she was going to cry

"God, no wonder it scares you, you _feel_ the balance? How do you do that?"

"It's not the balance," said Kylie, her shoulders slumping and looking at Willow with a clarity and 'here-ness' she had never had before, "I don't know what it is, if I felt the balance I would... feel the edges of the universe, of this reality, Mom doesn't know what it is" she added, as if that explained everything

"I think I know what you mean," said Willow quietly, "when I did the slayer-thing, I was totally connected to whatever it is that makes slayers Slayers, but I also felt... totally away from it, I could kind of feel that it was huge change, it was deep, and big, and..."

With a shatter, the glass exploded, Kylie was staring at her and beyond her, totally rigid

"...scared you that night too," Willow finished, and went round the table to put her arms around her, and Kylie leaned heavily on her "sorry, maybe you should go back to bed"

"It's too big" she whispered against Willow's collarbone

"I know, sweetie, but it's going to OK" said Willow gently

"That's why we're here, isn't it, so we know when the apocalypse comes we can stop it" she whispered again, this time taking Willow's hand

Willow squeezed it and got up to lead her back to bed

"Yeah," she assured her, "and now we got every slayer in the world"

And our first officially retired one, she thought to herself. Kylie grinned.

Buffy walked into the kitchen at about 3am and was shocked to find Willow there at the table, her hands around a gently steaming cup of water

"Willow?" she whispered, and Willow's glass cracked

"Shoot" muttered Willow and looked up at Buffy, "So he's all present and correct?"

Buffy grinned bashfully "Yeah... it's just so weird, you know? I felt his heart beat, and then die, and then an hour later, he's back, only he's really back"

"Kylie felt it, it scared her" said Willow, repairing the glass with a few whispered words

"She felt it happen? How?" Buffy demanded, getting her own glass of water

"She's special" said Willow quietly

"I'll say," Murmured Buffy, and sat down opposite her, "it's not... bad, it's not another hell thing, right?"

"Its way beyond hell, Kylie said it came from way beyond that, but no," she added, at Buffy's worried expression, "it's not bad, I think it's just different, he wasn't meant to die a vampire"

"Thank God" said Buffy

Maybe it was, thought Willow

"Will, he asked me to marry him" said Buffy, stunning her friend entirely

"Wh- really?" she spluttered hoarsely, Buffy only grinned and they both squealed as quietly as they could

"He wants it in the spring, in a church, all of it!" Buffy whispered

"So, are you retiring?" demanded Willow, wondering if Buffy could even handle a normal life at this point – even Dawn had decided against it

"No," said Buffy, "we talked about it, Angel's got so much knowledge on demons and stuff, and I've got too much used to killing'm, but we're taking a back seat"

Willow smiled, it was healthiest thing she'd ever heard Buffy say; she'd either been a general or a one-woman 'I Hate Being a Slayer' parade, sometimes both. Angel had just corrected it within hours of being officially alive.

00000

They slept in sleeping bags in close-knit groups of around ten. Slayers could eat, think and breathe 'on a mission' when they were called to. Most of the grads stayed on guard, feeling it was beneath them to sleep on the job.

Selene and Michael sat up on top of the kitchen roof, where it was vulnerable.

"You're not going to tell me what happened" said Michael

"It would take far too long to explain, for now" answered Selene

"But they've hurt you" he said, frowning

"You could say it was part of their survival" she said, her tone closing the subject, but damn it if Michael couldn't push that as her fiancée

"But it all I can tell is it was a long time ago, and it has really shaken you"

"Michael" she said, looking at him, officially closing it

They watched the night go past, the rolling stars and the wind. There's a lot of poetry on sitting very still outside, until someone farts and ruins the moment, which Michael did and made Selene smirk ever so slightly.

"You did that on purpose" she murmured

"Did not" he grinned

At which point, dawn began to break.

The slayers had either slept badly or not at all, but at least the kitchen was well-stocked and twenty slayers handled breakfast for the others, at which point they discovered a problem.

"I forgot blood" mumbled Dawn, sitting on a counter, handing plates of fry-ups to waiting slayers

"You forgot to provision the immortals?" asked a scarlet-eyed vampire woman sitting close by with an Irish accent doing the same job

"Yeah, well we don't usually need it, Selene and Michael bring their own!" snapped Dawn "And tell me the last time we got together like this, 'cause you forgot to leave a _note_!"

"We will need to clean the surrounding area of animals and homeless people; I understand your kind can live on animals?" Selene asked, who was handling the flaming grill, as one who didn't burn, with another pale vampire

The Irish vampire gave Selene a look that suggested perhaps she could live on Vimto instead of wine and nodded very slightly and muttered something about her eyes going gold before stalking out.

"Our vampires can," said Selene to Dawn, "it isn't ideal, but we will save the homeless for those who haven't fed the longest"

Dawn gave an embarrassed nod

"Under the circumstances, you've done really well" said the Irish woman, but Dawn only nodded not looking at her, the Irish woman rolled her eyes, catching the gaze of Zafrina sitting on a second-story window-ledge some fifty feet away and exchanged looks _'humans, they can keep it'_

It was an odd scene, over a few hundred people, mostly all women, sitting on the floor shovelling eggs, bacon, or cereal whilst keeping their weapons close by, keeping ready to spring up any second. It had a concentrated air of lots of people paying attention without realising they were listening to every noise. The pale vampires were the only ones who appeared very much more at ease.

"So, what's the deal with you guys?" asked Dawn as Sléibhín helped her with the cleaning, clearing, and tidying. He did the work, she watched.

"In what way?" he asked, making eye contact as his hands blurred and frothed the suds into a fine foam

"Like, sunlight doesn't work, you just sharpened a knife on your hand, you got red eyes, what's up with it?"

"My kind keep a low profile," he said, smiling, in a low, melodic voice, "we do not know very much aside from what some of us have discovered, such as we have an extra chromosome pair than humans, we have venom, instead of a virus or a curse, which is the source of our power and doesn't seem to have any kind of weakness in itself – a bite, unless the venom is sucked out, will turn you with complete success"

Dawn nodded "Ours go all bumpy in the forehead, they get yellow eyes and they lose their souls, well, except a few special circumstances"

"So it is true that magic exists?" asked Sléibhín, his voice chiming with a low laugh

"Yeah! I mean, you didn't notice the language problem? Or, that there _isn't_ one now? We all hear our own language and no one needs a translator, it's like, big magic!"

"I heard you speak of Willow, some of the slayers think she is a goddess, is that true also?"

"N- we don't know... what about the Vo-Terri?"

Selene came into the kitchen with an enormous stack of plates and utterly ignored the both of them as she laid it easily on the side next to the other (diminishing) piles.

"Volturi," said Sléibhín, after she had gone, "they're all the authority we have besides our own, they have a set of rules, not unlike the Covenant of the Lycan-Coven war"

"But you knew Selene, right? Like, a long time ago, did the Volturi tell you to do that?"

"No" he said quietly, and lifted a huge stack of plates to the other side, where Dawn finally noticed they were being wiped by cloths acting of their own accord.

"Oh my – is that you?" she gasped, at which point Móirne burst in from outside, alarming the entire room

"We do not use it" she growled very quietly

"Force of habit," Sléibhín murmured apologetically, and the cloths dropped, and he looked at Dawn "could you...?"

"Oh, sure," said Dawn, and leaned down to peer through the window where slayers had got their meals from, "you, you, you, and you three, come in here!"

This made Sléibhín laugh as the six she'd pointed at got up without question and began working

"You have gifts of your own" he said to her, smiling

Dawn tried to ignore the way his smile made her hands tingle and sat in the window

"Comes with living with 'The Slayer' big sister" she said, using quote fingers

"A challenge" he guessed

Dawn rolled her eyes "Try, eleven apocalypses before I graduated high school, four before Sunnydale became the new Grand Canyon..."

A howl outside interrupted, activity freezing completely in the dining room and kitchen, and then a mass movement towards weapons and positions; a howl meant Daniel had seen the attack coming.

"7:40am, and queue end-of-the-world" said Dawn, before she was grabbed round the middle by Faith from the other side of the window and pulled through

"I got a request before we left," she explained, pulling her through the crowd, "and you're goin' downstairs where twenty Selene's can watch you"

Dawn didn't struggle, she was extremely used to being looked after by now, even if she _had _just marshalled the army that was now protecting her and had got them all fed, watered , rested, equipped, and not to mention _here_. Plus, she didn't like swords until that was all between her and a nasty death; twenty vampires controlled by Selene was fine by her.

00000

Selene and Michael had abandoned their empty guns and had picked up two silver-etched swords each. They had had to go straight to the front line because slayers were pressing in from all directions to get a crack at them. The treaty Lycans were mostly staying out of it, literally being the back-up and stopping any Lycans from going into the cellars where the light-sensitive vampires and Dawn were staying.

It was, unfortunately for many of the newbies, an extremely short battle. They had outnumbered the de Mormonts' Lycan allies nearly 3-1 and were better rested, fed and equipped. The red-eyed vampires had done a shocking amount of damage, until finally Móirne had Mrs de Mormonts by the neck and back, held her aloft, and slammed her down onto a bent knee, permanently crippling her. The resulting howl had stopped the fighting. Mr de Mormonts, unrecognisable as a changed Lycan, had already died.

Unable to stay in her changed form, the paralysed Mrs de Mormonts reverted back into human form and her allies watched, dark eyes glistening.

It was her son that spoke to her, in Russian, which his mother didn't know was understood by everyone at the moment.

"Mother, won't you stop now?" he asked

"That bitch of yours is better off dead than birthing a half-breed!" she snarled

"That's our decision!" he snarled back

"Whose blood does that creature carry in its veins? You allowed centuries of pride, resistance, pure breeding to burn inside that woman!"

"I know exactly what I'm doing, what you've done is cost us more of our people over the same thing we were fighting against! It cost you your legs, you will never recover from that, how will you lead your allies now?"

A low, rumbling growl came from a nearby Lycan, which looked directly at Yegor and growled again

"And how will you uphold _that_ bargain, if you're crippled?" he demanded

"Well then kill me, Yegor, tell you have that much in you" she snarled

"I have more than that, but I'll leave it up to cousin Artur to decide" said Yegor, nodding at the Lycan. The Lycan growled again and reverted back to his human form and took the woman from Móirne's arms, slinging her over his shoulder.

Faith had literally sat on the side, watching the grads take control of the slayettes, and who out of them would be upgraded. Twenty-seven grads were definitely full slayer level and most of the slayerettes could now be called grads. Pity some of the newbies could only be called an audience.

Buffy was going to be pleased, no one died, only some sustained actual injuries – the worst was poor Julia who had been clawed down her neck and shoulder, but the bleeding was now under control.

Blood... where were all the vampires? Móirne had had the crazy lady and had gone, like all the others, as soon as she could.

Stepping outside into the foyer she met the twenty of them standing close to the door, Zafrina nodded to her

"You guys goin'?" she asked

"We're done" said Zafrina

"Well, thanks for, y'know, coming" said Faith awkwardly – how do you say things like this without sounding like one of Buffy's dismissals

Móirne and Sléibhín stepped forward

"Tell Selene, we will meet up soon, we have things to discuss" said Sléibhín

"Sure"

And they walked out. Faith sighed, now they all had to get home. She didn't know if Selene had even thought that far ahead.


	9. understanding if not forgiveness

**Author's Note: I drew on more from 'In the Realm of the Dead', that wasn't intentional, I had the conversation sitting in my head and it made sense to me – I've explained enough so it's not unreadable without reading the other one. Thanks for reading.**

**00000**

The twins were waiting for them back in the hotel, where Selene had taken a standard double room (they disliked the glossy, oversized, master suites; you get used to a way of living).

"I didn't give you permission to come here" said Selene, glaring at Móirne

"Um, Sléibhín, maybe we should take a walk" said Michael, who knew the beef was between the women and wasn't happy that his presence here wasn't desired. Sléibhín nodded and paused, looking at his sister. The pause was about half a second long, but he then walked out of the door.

"I just told him to make it a long one" said Móirne after the door closed

"I don't intend for you to stay long" snapped Selene

"But I do" said Móirne gently

Selene noticed she was standing very still. The red-eyed vampires all did, when they weren't doing something (which, except Zafrina, they all seemed very careful to do continually), they were like statues, literally.

"I can relax around other immortals, did you not know that you also do this?" asked Móirne, smiling very slightly

No, thought Selene

"Did you think we would sit and speak of old times, heal wounds that have lingered for centuries?" she demanded, realising she had slipped into old speech patterns and fought it

"A wound as old as that must have festered" said Móirne

"That's even too obvious to insult, do you all do that?" snarled Selene

"Selene, I mean to undo it, which can be done, you well know"

"You still left, and you still betrayed me, if you stayed around for centuries I'd still be bitter for it"

Móirne nodded

"You mean to marry Michael, and you can't explain what all this means to you"

"That perhaps I should have killed you, or that I couldn't forgive you?" demanded Selene, and realised she had shouted

"We didn't always stay away, Selene, we know what we've done to you"

"Sléibhín wasn't the one I couldn't forgive; I saw what happened to him, which was payment enough"

"Then, what I did to you" said Móirne, her shocking red eyes looking bizarrely dangerous and vulnerable

"You say you – you watched me?" demanded Selene "Or you paid someone to tell you?"

"Tanis was exiled to a hidden monastery not very far from Lycan territory, and happened to house an order of monks known for keeping their history, which all died from a mysterious disease in three days, just twenty years before his exile... who do you think the disease was?"

Selene was now really annoyed, she had chosen that place herself and knew of its history, and had liked the irony of it at the time. Tanis must have really enjoyed that.

"More than I did" said Móirne

So, it _had_ been a joke against Viktor's little soldier...

"It had been his price" said Móirne apologetically

Oh shut up, thought Selene, tired of her every thought being responded to.

"And so Tanis kept an eye on me from his monastery, did he?" she asked sceptically

"No, Kraven kept him informed in exchange for his silence – Kraven thought Tanis might use his knowledge of the truce between him and Lucian to get back into favour"

"He always was too paranoid to see any sense, he seriously thought Viktor would ever take Tanis back in?"

"No, but Tanis made him think it was possible"

Selene smiled internally – Tanis really had been very clever. Móirne gave an answering smile, sharing the joke.

"Stop!" she snapped

"I have no control over it; you were one of the only ones who ever learned how to control your mind that way"

Selene resented the reference to their comradeship

"It was a very long time ago" she snarled incisors lengthening

"Was it, though?" Móirne asked, which made Selene pause "People used you all your life, and you just bit your tongue and let them so long as you got to kill Lycans"

Viktor had used her and lied to her, the Death Dealers Code had victimised her, Kraven had wanted to use her to better his position (and eventually become some kind of Vampire King), and Selene was never ignorant of all of this but had mostly tried to ignore it

"It isn't any excuse, to be immortal" said Móirne, looking away, "that was your reasoning then, that when you're immortal all that matters is what you want, but it's not, we were just wrong"

"I know that, you don't think I knew that when I killed Viktor?" said Selene in an eerily emotionless voice, as she tried to keep control of herself

"But I did the worst of it. I was your friend, and I was the worst of all of them"

"You think I didn't know that when you both walked away?" Selene asked, which made Móirne look back at her again, her eyes open wide

"You felt it then? But how did you know?"

"I am not a fool, Móirne, I knew the moment I understood what Sending the Messenger meant, and I knew that it wasn't a question of living by a Code"

There was a long pause, Móirne was watching Selene's memory, and her eyes tightened when she felt Selene's pain that day

**But you kept it?**

The pain? Yes

**Why?**

Because it helped survival

**But survival in a place you hated?**

You did, you used it for your ends

Móirne winced

I wanted revenge, and it gave it to me every day, I could understand that no one cared about vampires and Lycans, or why we were killing them, I just didn't understand you- what did you want from me?

**Nothing!**

So why did you do it? What did you get from it?

**Freedom**

From who? The Code let you go free whenever you like, the others didn't want you on the field if you didn't want to be there, and they were dead anyway! All you had left was me, and you betrayed me for no reason! We agreed, when you left, that it all meant nothing, so if the Code was meaningless and I was meant to break it, why did you betray me for it? It made you worse than Kraven!

Selene blinked. She had pinned Móirne by the throat to the wall, lifting her clear off the floor. Móirne simply let her, her throat felt like a marble pillar, or a steel bar. She dug her fingers in, and felt the flesh yield very slightly

It was the old intimacy, the familiarity that had snapped her; only Móirne had ever gone in that far before Michael, and she was in, like Selene had no resistance at all.

**We didn't know we couldn't die, the plan went wrong**

"FUCK '_THE PLAN'_, MÓIRNE!" shouted Selene, dropping her, "You let me grieve for them for twenty years before telling me it was all some wonderful lie to stop new recruits like I was from getting bored or asking too many questions – Viktor killed my family and saved me because he needed more soldiers, and who knows how many others had the same done to them!"

"It was because you look like Sonja" said Móirne, frowning

"I... what?"

"You didn't just remind him of Sonja, you look like her, fight like her, Viktor barely saw you; he saw his daughter"

That tone, it meant she had read it straight from people's minds, but there was something in her tone that spoke of her own memories

"I was part of something called the Volturi, after we were bitten and escaped from home we stayed with them awhile, when I went to Amelia's Coven looking for somewhere else to go, and I saw memories of Sonja in everyone's minds, no one knew what had happened but she was dead, and not long after, you joined the Death Dealers, I saw everyone's memories of Viktor around you... the reason Sléibhín and I left was that we hadn't made the allies we needed to keep out of the Volturi, and so we had to go to get farther away from them, and I never told you about the code being lies because I didn't know my brother was alive until that day we found him, and I didn't want you to hate the memory of the old group"

Selene's old group, the first group of Death Dealers she had lived and trained with when she came into the Coven, had died on the field, apparently fulfilling the Honour Code, and Selene had grieved bitterly for them for twenty years, before the day she and Móirne had found Sléibhín, naked and half-mad from the horror of the battle, which led to Selene's discovery that the Honour bit had been a cowardly way to end one's life on the field, corrupting the spirit of the original Death Dealer's Code even further – Selene had ended all practice of the Code when she had come home afterwards.

"You loved them so much, and I couldn't tell you that they'd used you like that, but that was weak of me and it caused you centuries of pain" at which point she winced

"What?" asked Selene, frowning

"Michael just hit Sléibhín" said Móirne, putting a hand on her jaw absently

Selene realised Michael was now fully aware of her past, and resented Sléibhín for yapping his trap about it

"It was his past too" said Móirne, standing back a step

An ancient argument among immortals was that when you had forever, one of your only true possessions was your past, therefore, you did not just open up about your past in respect to the rights of the others who shared your memory; it was like you did not just lend out a sibling's favourite possession to someone who happened to take interest in it.

It was not for Sléibhín to simply give out details

"Michael is your fiancé" said Móirne reproachfully

"It was a world he had no experience of," started Selene furiously but the door burst open and Michael had his arms around her, and she found herself so grateful for his presence she just buried her face in his shoulder. She heard Móirne make a surprised noise.

"We don't often meet people who can make our kind dizzy in one punch" said Sléibhín's voice behind Michael

Selene smiled against Michael's shoulder and moved out of the embrace

"You can go now" she said

"But..." began Sléibhín but Móirne put a hand on his arm and led him out

"I'm impressed," said Selene, smiling at Michael after they closed the door, circling her arms around his waist, "hundreds of Lycans didn't even scratch them"

"I've never wanted to hit someone like that before" he said quietly, leaning his forehead on hers and wrapping his arms around her

"I'm sorry" she muttered, looking at him

"For not telling me? I get it, actually" he said, smiling, causing her to frown quizzically

"When something really bad happens, no one can help, you just... don't talk about it. I mean, what could I have done?"

"Nothing" she whispered, pulling him into a kiss. When a thought nudged her about how they were all going to get home, she didn't need much effort to push it aside until later.


	10. peace reached

Selene left Michael sleeping. She wandered around the hotel, her mind buzzing. It had really been very simple, once you thought about it, but Móirne could have told her then, it was just a question of trust, and Selene still hurt that Móirne hadn't trusted her even then.

So these people they called the Volturi were people to avoid, even their own kind avoided them. Móirne had been so worried she had joined the Death Dealers in a hope to make herself too risky to get hold of to be worth the effort, but apparently once Sléibhín was found alive, either the Death Dealers were no longer enough or she just didn't need them with him as her only ally.

This, plus her desire to preserve the deep regard Selene had had for her 'old group', was understandable. The Selene Móirne had known would have immediately marshalled every Death Dealer into war mode if she had told her about the Volturi; she would have relocated the entire coven into a fortress (vampires are well known for their access to intimidating buildings), risking Viktor's rage and possibly more manipulation from Kraven... and she would have made a mess of it, and Móirne would be trapped inside it all, and may not have discovered her brother was alive, which must have been her agenda for searching Middle Europe as much as she had.

And whilst she hadn't known her brother was alive, there was no point in exposing her last real friend to the revelation that she had been used in the worst way possible for something she herself had not believed in but had still participated in. It was extremely logical.

She was walking along the roof of the kitchen facility when a movement caught her eye. Dropping instinctively into the shadows provided by the trees that lined the loading area, Selene crouched and made her way carefully to the window.

Well, well, well.

In the storage area with the pasta, the flour and other things, was Dawn and Daniel, kissing madly against a shelving unit.

That certainly tied the slayers into the truce. Selene smiled and withdrew. There was something about those hours after a battle, even if it had been a grossly outnumbered one and the both of them had not seen much action in the front line, but it definitely reminded you life could be very short.

It had been the reason she'd kissed Michael in the Lycan nest when Viktor was after him, just wanting to do it once that didn't involve chaining him to an interrogation chair and before there was a chance for him to get killed.

She remembered, at last, the Buffy was in America somewhere, and had requested a flight tomorrow. Well, that had been if they'd needed her, and they were going home anyway. Oddly, Buffy hadn't checked in today as she had said she would.

Quite frankly, Selene was relieved she hadn't been here for this, the girl irritated her, just in the way she organised things, assumed she would be leader, and generally rubbed Selene up the wrong way. She knew she irritated Buffy, possibly in her more disciplined, military-style attitude, but they'd managed to make a truce that, for now, guaranteed to keep the Lycan-vampire war from exposing the entire underworld to the glare of exposure. Michael had had a big influence in stopping Selene from losing her patience. And Buffy would have trodden on Dawn's toes and no one needed to see that.

Selene opened her mobile phone, made her way up to the empty grand suite, sat on the roof and waited until 3am and began bullying various officials in the travelling industry to get 500 slayers home.

And then she remembered they had forgotten to put that reserve aircraft carrier anchored in the Gulf of Bothnia on the market.

Well, at least some of these officials would sleep soundly tonight.


End file.
